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President Erdogan postpones foreign trips over coronavirus, agency reports

The Turkish authorities have also decided to close schools for a week starting from March 16, while the universities will be closed for three weeks from March 16

MOSCOW, March 12. /TASS/./TASS/. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has postponed indefinitely his foreign trips amid the spread of the novel coronavirus, Anadolu Agency quoted president’s Spokesperson Ibrahim Kalin as telling a news conference on Thursday.

According to Ibrahim Kalin, the Turkish authorities have also decided to close schools for a week starting from March 16, while the universities will be closed for three weeks from March 16. From March 23, university students will be learning online. All sporting events will be held without the spectators until the end of April, Kalin added.

Overnight to Wednesday, a Turkish national tested positive for the novel coronavirus after returning from Europe. His condition is stable, he was quarantined.

In late December 2019, a pneumonia outbreak caused by the COVID-19 coronavirus (previously known as 2019-nCoV) was reported in China’s city of Wuhan, an economic and industrial megacity with a population of 12 million. Outside China, the worst affected countries are Italy, South Korea and Iran. Overall, more than 100 other countries have reported confirmed coronavirus cases. Russia had 28 coronavirus cases as of Wednesday.

The World Health Organization says that the novel coronavirus cases across the globe have exceeded 118,000, with about 4,300 deaths. The WHO has officially described the situation with the novel coronavirus as a pandemic.