İstanbul Governor’s Office: Passengers from Europe to be Quarantined

* Photo: Tansel Parlak / AA

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The Governor's Office of İstanbul has announced that the ones who come to İstanbul from Europe will be quarantined in dorms for 14 days.

Indicating that three students' dormitories have been designated for the quarantine, the Governor's Office has also stated that the students currently staying in these dorms will be temporarily transferred to other public dormitories of the Credit and Dormitories Institution (KYK).

Deadline for applications: 5 p.m. on March 16

The following statement has been released on the official website of the İstanbul Governor's Office regarding the 14-day quarantine foreseen for the passengers from nine European countries:

"As part of the Coronavirus measures specified in the meeting held on March 15, 2020 upon the instruction of our President, chaired by our Vice President Fuat Oktay and attended by Minister of Foreign Affairs Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, Minister of Interior Süleyman Soylu, Minister of Health Fahrettin Koca and Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Mehmet Cahit Turhan;

"Our citizens who have temporarily traveled for a short time to or who have been studying in Germany, Spain, France, Austria, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Belgium and the Netherlands and want to return to our country shall apply to the Turkish diplomatic missions in those countries until Monday, March 16 at 17:00 local time and the return process for the applicants to the country will be completed until Tuesday, March 17 at 24.00.

"In accordance with the precautions of the Ministry of Health and Board of Science, our citizens who will come to İstanbul will be quarantined/observed for a period of 14 days in coordination of our Governor's Office."

3 dormitories designated for quarantine

Accordingly, the Ministry of Youth and Sports has announced that the passengers will be quarantined in the following 3 dorms in İstanbul:

* KYK Kanuni Sultan Süleyman Male Student Dorm,

* KYK Fatih Sultan Mehmet Male-Female Student Dorm,

* KYK Florya Beşyol Female Student Dorm.

18 Covid-19 cases in Turkey so far

With a circular letter on coronavirus measures issued by the Ministry of Interior on March 14, 2020, all border gates have been closed to the passengers coming from Germany, Spain, France, Austria, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Belgium and the Netherlands and flights to these countries from Turkey have also been temporarily suspended.

As announced by Minister of Health Koca on Twitter yesterday, the total cases of Covid-19, the new coronavirus type, has increased to 18.

Coronavirus cases around the world

After emerging in Wuhan, China last December, the virus, officially known as COVID-19, has spread to at least 141 countries and territories.

The global death toll from the virus has surpassed 5,700, with more than 152,000 cases confirmed worldwide, according to the World Health Organization.

You can see the number of coronavirus cases and death toll by countries in below interactive map shared by Washington University:

(TP/SD)