Turkey Grounds Flights to Italy, Iraq, South Korea Over Coronavirus

ANKARA (Sputnik) - The news comes as Ankara moved to suspend all flights to China, where COVID-19 was first detected, and to Iran, where up to 50 reportedly died of the coronavirus.

Turkey has expanded flight bans over the coronavirus outbreak, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on Saturday.

"Due to the coronavirus situation, we introduced another measure at the proposal of our scientific council. All passenger flights between Turkey and Italy, South Korea and Iraq will be suspended at midnight," he said in a statement.

Workers in protective suits are seen at a checkpoint for registration and body temperature measurement, at an entrance to a residential compound in Wuhan, February 13, 2020

© REUTERS / China Daily CDIC

The novel coronavirus was first detected in China in late December and has since spread to more than 50 countries, prompting the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare a global health emergency. So far, the virus infected more than 79,000 people in mainland China, while over 2,800 people died and nearly 40,000 have recovered. According to the latest WHO data, the number of those infected outside China has reached 4,691, while 67 people have died.