Turkey sending 34 flights to return stranded citizens

Turkey’s government is working to return dozens of Turkish nationals stranded abroad by the ongoing global coronavirus outbreak, which has led to canceled flights worldwide.

The Associated Press reported Tuesday that Turkey’s government has directed 34 Turkish Airlines flights to retrieve Turkish citizens from nine European countries where fears of the virus have virtually locked down public society.

Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu told the AP that more than 3,600 Turkish citizens remain abroad and will be quarantined in two Turkish cities upon returning home. The quarantine period will last two weeks.

Numerous airlines have reduced their number of overall flights amid the global outbreak, which was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) last week. American Airlines announced this week that it would reduce its overall number of international flights by 75 percent as it struggles to stay afloat.

Turkey has confirmed 47 cases of the disease and zero deaths, relatively low figures compared to the more than 180,000 infected by the virus worldwide.