Restaurants reopen in Istanbul amid easing COVID-19 restrictions

ISTANBUL - Restaurants and cafes reopened on Monday in Turkey's biggest city Istanbul as the government is relaxing COVID-19 restrictions.

With full preparations made for the lunchtime, owners of restaurants located in the business quarters of the city were eager to serve the thousands of public workers who also returned to their offices on Monday.

Most restaurant owners planned to call it a day in the afternoon because they believed the streets would be empty after people go off work at six o'clock in the evening.

"I don't think restaurants will stay open for dinner for a while," the owner of a small restaurant in the commercial Karakoy neighborhood, who didn't give his name, told Xinhua.

Restaurants located in the city's tourist areas tend to remain closed until international flights are resumed.

In Turkey, parks, beaches, daycare centers, kindergartens, libraries, sports facilities, and museums also resumed operation on Monday, and the ban on domestic travel was lifted.

In late May, the Turkish government decided to further ease restrictions over the COVID-19 pandemic after infection cases were reported to have dropped over the past weeks.