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All flights from China to be halted as of Wednesday, Turkish health minister says

03 February 2020 22:31 (UTC +04:00)

All flights from China will halt as of Wednesday, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said Monday amid measures for the coronavirus outbreak, APA reports citing Daily Sabah.

Koca added that passengers from Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Malaysia will be screened at airports.

A military cargo airplane carrying Turkish nationals and citizens of Azerbaijan, Albania and Georgia on Saturday departed from Wuhan, which was at the epicenter of the outbreak, and arrived later that day in the capital Ankara.

"All 61 Turkish evacuees from China's Wuhan tested negative for coronavirus," the minister said.

Under tight measures, the evacuees were taken to an unused hospital in the capital where they were to remain in quarantine for 14 days. Health care personnel wearing full-body protective suits accompanied the evacuees. Though authorities said all were in good health without any symptoms of the infection, measures will remain in place during the quarantine.

As many countries reported coronavirus cases, Turkey has so far been safe from the outbreak. Several suspected cases involving Chinese tourists or Turkish nationals visiting China turned out to be false alarms.

The SARS-like virus, which originated in the central Chinese city Wuhan, has so far killed over 500 people and spread to at least 18 countries.

Chinese Consul General in Istanbul Cui Wei said that 521 people have died from the virus, while 17,335 are suspected to be infected.