Turkey eases border restrictions for travel

By Muhammed Boztepe

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey lifted restrictions Thursday on entrances and exits for Turkish citizens and foreign nationals, except for the country’s land border with Iran.

The move came after a Cabinet meeting led by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on positive developments in the fight against the novel coronavirus.

Related decrees have been lifted except for the border with Iran.

Air travel will be coordinated in collaboration by Health, Foreign and Transport ministries.

Turkish and foreign nationals who enter Turkey will go through health checks.

Entries and exits will be in line with measures taken by Interior, Health and Transport ministries.

The new decree has been sent to all provinces.

Turkey reported 987 new cases, 1,021 recoveries and 17 deaths Thursday from the virus.

The pandemic has killed more than 459,500 people worldwide, with an excess of 7.72 million confirmed cases and over 3.5 million recoveries, according to figures compiled by US-based Johns Hopkins University.