ISTANBUL, May 27 (NNN-ANADOLU) – Turkey’s biggest city, Istanbul, disinfected mosques to make them ready for reopening on Friday, as part of the government’s normalisation process, amid a slowdown in the COVID-19 pandemic.
Workers conducted detailed sanitisation works in the Sultanahmet Mosque, which is also a major tourist attraction spot, on the historical peninsula of the city’s European part.
Constructed during the Ottoman era, the mosque is known as the Blue Mosque because of the blue tiles surrounding its walls, and it is among the most visited active mosques in the city.
Earlier, Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, announced that, mosques across the country would reopen for worshipping from May 29, in line with conditions set by local and religious authorities.
Meanwhile, Istanbul municipal teams have drawn circles on the ground of the Caddebostan coastline, located along the Marmara Sea, on the Asian part of the city, to apply the social distancing rule.
Before the pandemic hit the city, the coastline used to be filled with Istanbul residents, who enjoyed socialising and having picnics there on weekends.
People in the entire country were under full lock-down at home on Tuesday, the last day of the curfew, which was declared on Friday, to curb the spread of COVID-19.
The Turkish government recently launched a normalisation process, as the daily rise in COVID-19 cases continued to slow down.
Turkey reported 948 new COVID-19 cases and 28 more deaths on Tuesday, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 158,762 and the death toll to 4,397.– NNN-ANADOLU
