COVID-19: Turkey brings 299 more nationals from abroad

By Mehmet Sah Yilmaz, Ali Korkmaz and Gokhan Yilmaz

ANKARA / IZMIR / ISTANBUL Turkey (AA) - Turkey returned 299 more of its nationals from four African nations early Sunday as part of its ongoing repatriation efforts for Ramadan amid the coronavirus pandemic.

A total of 133 citizens and 10 North Macedonians returned from Nigeria and Ghana on a special Turkish Airlines flight that arrived in Aegean Izmir province.

Following mandatory health checks, they were transported to Aegean province, Aydin to be quarantined for two weeks at a dormitory.

And 166 Turkish citizens landed in Istanbul from Senegal and Mauritania and were sent to Duzce province for quarantine.

Turkey has returned more than 60,000 citizens, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said in a tweet.

Deputy Foreign Minister Yavuz Selim Kiran said late Thursday that Turkey is bringing 1,411 citizens from the US, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Ghana, Mauritania, Nigeria, Senegal and Somalia.

After originating in China last December, COVID-19 has spread to at least 185 countries and regions. Europe and the US are currently the worst-hit regions.

The pandemic has killed more than 202,600 worldwide, with total infections nearing 2.9 million, while an excess of 816,200 patients have recovered, according to figures compiled by the US-based Johns Hopkins University.