UPDATES NUMBER OF TURKISH CITIZENS BROUGHT FROM ABROAD; ADDS DETAILS; CHANGES HEADLINE, LEDE
By Mehmet Sah Yilmaz, Ali Korkmaz, Gokhan Yilmaz and Behcet Alkan
*** ANKARA / IZMIR / ISTANBUL Turkey (AA) - Turkey brought an additional 506 of its nationals from four African nations early Sunday as part of its ongoing repatriation efforts for Ramadan amid the coronavirus pandemic.
*** On a special Turkish Airlines flight, 207 Turkish nationals returned from Somalia and Djibouti have arrived in Turkey's Nevsehir-Kapadokya Airport.
*** After health checks, they were sent to the central Nevsehir and Nigde provinces for quarantine.
A total of 133 citizens and 10 North Macedonians returned from Nigeria and Ghana on another special flight of Turkish Airlines that arrived in the Aegean Izmir province.
Following mandatory health checks, they were transported to the Aegean province of Aydin to be quarantined for two weeks at a dormitory.
Also, 166 Turkish citizens landed in Istanbul from Senegal and Mauritania and were sent to northwestern Duzce province for quarantine.
Turkey has so far brought more than 60,000 citizens from abroad, 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 203,000 worldwide, with total infections nearing 2.9 million, while an excess of 822,600 patients have recovered, according to figures compiled by the US-based Johns Hopkins University.
* Writing by Burak Bir and Firdevs Bulut in Ankara.