While Turkey was expected to gradually relax restrictions against the spread of COVID-19 following the success of earlier measures, Erdoğan detailed some of the early normalization programs as the spreading pace began slowing over the past two weeks.
Noting that Turkey "will gradually return to normal life," Erdoğan said it will be "a new normal." He warned that tougher steps would be taken if people fail to follow the rules.
There will be some relief for those aged 65 years and above and below 20, who have been under stay-at-home orders for more than a month. As Erdoğan explained, these citizens will be allowed to go outside for four hours, one day a week starting this weekend.
On May 10, the elderly will be allowed to go out within walking distance of their homes for four hours. The same measure will subsequently apply to children and young people, for a day each. As of May 13, children up to age 14 will also be able to go out within walking distance of their houses from 11 a.m. till 3 p.m. The same four-hour window will be extended to those aged between 15 and 20 from May 15.
Since March 21, around 7.5 million senior citizens have been under lockdown, forbidden from going outside in a measure taken to stop the spread of the new coronavirus.
The same restriction was brought in by the government for people aged under 20 on April 4.
Erdoğan also said shopping malls, barber shops and some stores would be allowed to open on May 11 as long as they abided by normalization rules, adding that universities would return to their academic calendar as of June 15. He warned, however, that the government would impose much harsher measures if the normalization plan was not followed.
Turkey will also lift coronavirus travel restrictions for Antalya, Aydın, Erzurum, Hatay, Malatya, Mersin and Muğla. Travel to and from these seven provinces will be permitted from Monday night. Entrance and exit bans will stay in place for the remaining 24, which includes Turkey's economic and cultural hub of Istanbul and national capital Ankara, for 15 days.
Erdoğan added that a National Solidarity Campaign to raise money to fight the virus and its economic impact had netted some TL 1.91 billion ($271 million) in donations.
Turkey has delivered coronavirus aid to at least 57 countries, including the U.S., Italy, Spain and the U.K., and remains the world's third-largest provider of humanitarian aid during the pandemic.
Turkey has not imposed a stringent nationwide lockdown since reporting its first positive case on March 11, resorting instead to weekend curfews in 31 provinces and cities.
A total of 86,166 people have recovered so far from the novel coronavirus in Turkey, including 5,015 on Monday, the country's Health Minister said.
The death toll from the pandemic climbed to 3,461 as Turkey saw 64 more fatalities in the past 24 hours, Fahrettin Koca said on Twitter.
The country registered 1,614 new cases, bringing the tally to 127,659, he added.
Meanwhile, over 35,771 additional tests have been conducted in the last 24 hours, bringing the total number to 1.17 million.
COVID-19 cases have been reported in 187 countries and regions since it emerged in China last December, with the U.S. and Europe now the hardest-hit areas.
The pandemic has killed over 248,000 people, with total infections reaching over 3.53 million, while more than 1.13 million have recovered from the disease, according to figures compiled by Johns Hopkins University.