Originally Posted by
Bob Saccamano
Turkey just announced a weekend lockdown and also a weeknight curfew due to increasing numbers. Makes it less attractive to visit /spend the winter..
Have been in Turkey for a couple months. The increased measures are not too much different than what the situation has been... a gradual locking down for last 6 weeks. Restaurants already closed except for takeaway but everything else normal outside of the curfew hours. Unfortunate to not be able to roam the streets on weekends, but if you have work to do and a flexible schedule it's not so bad. The existing evening curfew on weekends actually excluded foreign tourists, but unsure if that exception will continue (and that rubs me the wrong way, so abiding by curfew...).
If you like to shop in the fancy malls, it seems a HES code will be required for entry which can be obtained with the Hayat Eve Sığar app or by SMSing some number. (both only work with Turkish SIM, fyi).
In general I have been very impressed with hygiene and mask usage. Nearly 100% mask usage everywhere outside home (including outdoors). Foot operated hand sanitizers in virtually every shop/cafe/takeaway place. There is no excuse for not having clean hands here. Also to date there has been good contact tracing (I understand this is weakening now with bigger numbers) and imposed isolation of family/contacts of known patients - I have encountered a couple people who were subject to 14 day isolation recently. They are doing what they can, and overall seems OK. Better than the joke of my home country, anyway.