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Turkey to help Iran to fight coronavirus via Skype

04 March 2020 14:39 (UTC +04:00)

As the coronavirus scare prevails in Iran, the country has turned to its western neighbor, Turkey, APA reports citing Daily Sabah.

“'Please don’t come, let’s talk on Skype,' we told them,” Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said, referring to Iranian health authorities’ request to meet with their Turkish counterparts on the issue.

Koca said the outbreak spread fast in Iran, and Turkish authorities recommended Tehran impose a lockdown in Qom, the city where the first case was reported. “But they said there was no need for a lockdown. Now, it has become a serious matter, and they sought our assistance on what steps to take to fight the virus. They wanted to send a delegation here to meet our Science Board but we told them not to come and instead, to hold talks on Skype,” Koca said. Turkey has been on alert since the virus also known as COVID-19 started spreading after the first reports in China’s Wuhan. Although China now reports a decline in cases, Iran is among countries reporting more cases each day. So far, 77 people have died of the new coronavirus in the country, while the number of infected people is now more than 2,300.