Ankara, 14 May 2021 (Anadolu News)

Turkey will gradually begin lifting lockdown restrictions starting next week, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday.

“We will start implementing our normalization calendar as of Monday,” Erdogan said while addressing a virtual meeting of his ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party.

The restrictions will be eased in phases until the end of May and significantly as of June.

He praised the country’s state-of-the-art health care facilities and social security system for preventing a crisis.

Turkey has so far registered 44,059 deaths from COVID-19, while over 4.85 million people have recovered from the disease. There have been over 5 million confirmed cases in the country.

Turkey has administered over 25.6 million coronavirus jabs since launching a mass vaccination campaign on Jan. 14, according to official figures.

More than 14.8 million people have received their first doses, over 10.7 million people have been fully vaccinated.

Turkey began a 17-day lockdown that will last until May 17 and cover this week’s Eid al-Fitr holidays.

The restrictions led to a drop in 80 of Turkey’s provinces between May 1-7, according to the latest Health Ministry statistics.