UPDATE - Turkey brings back near 800 nationals amid pandemic

By Recep Bilek and Halife Yalcinkaya

ADDS EVACUATIONS FROM THE NETHERLANDS, REVISES HEADLINE, DECK AND BACKGROUND

SAMSUN, SIVAS, ANKARA, Turkey (AA) - More than 800 Turkish nationals were repatriated Friday from Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as part of an initiative by Ankara amid the coronavirus pandemic.

A specially arranged Turkish Airlines flight with 195 Turks from the UAE landed in the Black Sea province of Samsun.

Separately, 280 Turks were evacuated from Kuwait and landed in Sivas province.

And a total of 302 were brought back from the Netherlands and sent to a dormitory in Ankara, where they will be put under a 14-day quarantine.

After routine health checks, passengers arriving from the UAE and Kuwait were quarantined at dormitories in Tokat and Sinop provinces.

Turkey has repatriated nearly 70,000 nationals from 107 nations, under instructions by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and in coordination with the foreign ministry.

Ankara reported Friday 135,569 coronavirus cases, 86,396 of which have fully recovered. The death toll stands at 3,689.

More than 3.9 million cases have been reported in 187 countries since the virus emerged in China last December, with the hardest-hit areas being the US and Europe.

A significant portion of COVID-19 patients, more than 1.3 million, have recovered, but the disease has claimed more than 274,000 lives, according to data compiled by the US-based Johns Hopkins University.

*Wiring by Ali Murat Alhas