Turkey to bring back remaining expats home

By Merve Aydogan

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey on Wednesday assured that its citizens stranded abroad due to the coronavirus pandemic will be brought home soon.

"Upon the instructions of our President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, we will bring back our citizens who are stranded abroad and have requested to return home as soon as quarantine facilities are established for them," said Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu in a tweet.

He said so far at least 25,000 citizens were brought back home from 70 different countries. They were kept in quarantine and closely monitored for coronavirus symptoms after they returned.

To stem the spread of COVID-19, many countries have suspended international flights.

Since the virus emerged last December in the Chinese city of Wuhan, it has spread to at least 185 countries and regions.

There are nearly 1.99 million confirmed infections globally with over 126,800 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University. Almost 495,000 have recovered.