'Turkey implementing safe tourism during pandemic'

By Gozde Bayar

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey has successfully carried out a safe tourism program during the coronavirus pandemic, the country’s foreign minister said Friday.

Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Twitter that Turkey's successfully implemented safe tourism program during the outbreak was shared with Secretary-General of the UN World Tourism Organization Zurab Pololikashvili.

“Turkey hosted 52 million tourists and became 6th most favorite tourism destination in the world [in] 2019,” Cavusoglu added.

Earlier, the country's tourism minister said Turkey took significant measures against the pandemic for protecting both the visitors and staff.

As of Thursday, Turkey had registered a total of 22,264 deaths due to the coronavirus, while over 2.17 million people have recovered from the disease. There are currently more than 2.29 million confirmed cases in the country.

Since it originated in China in December 2019, the COVID-19 pandemic has claimed more than 1.9 million lives in 191 countries and regions.

Over 88.17 million cases have been reported worldwide, with more than 49.19 million recoveries, according to figures compiled by the US' Johns Hopkins University.

The US, India, and Brazil remain the worst-hit countries in terms of cases.