Turkey: No coronavirus case confirmed so far

By Gozde Bayar and Burak Dag

ANKARA (AA) – Turkey has yet to see any confirmed cases of coronavirus, but that does not mean there will never be any, said the country's top health official on Wednesday.

On flights bringing back Turkish nationals from Iran, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca told Anadolu Agency’s Editors’ Desk in the capital Ankara: “We can easily say that none of our passengers’ results are positive [for coronavirus], they are all negative.”

Some 132 Turkish citizens arrived in Ankara on Tuesday after being evacuated from Iran, where 15 deaths from the coronavirus have been confirmed.

Koca said that Turkish passengers coming to Turkey from the Iranian cities of Mashhad and Qom, the epicenter of the virus, are in quarantine to prevent the coronavirus from spreading inside the country.

He added that Turkey has set up field hospitals at its border with Iran.

Iran has reported 95 confirmed cases of coronavirus so far, and Turkey has closed its border gates, stopped railways crossings, and suspended most flight service, except Turkish passengers returning from Tehran.

The novel coronavirus, officially known as COVID-19, has sounded global alarms, with China reporting around 2,700 deaths from the outbreak, and health experts grappling to find a cure.

Outside mainland China, the coronavirus has spread to more than 30 countries, including the U.S., U.K., Singapore, France, Russia, Spain and India.

The World Health Organization has declared the outbreak an international health emergency