MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 05th February, 2020) Turkey will conduct thermal screenings of all passengers coming from international destinations starting on Thursday amid fears of the spread of the novel coronavirus, media reported, citing Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca, on Wednesday.
Earlier in the week, Turkey began to screen tourists coming from several Asian countries, including from Japan and China's Hong Kong region, which have a high number of confirmed coronavirus cases.
According to the Anadolu news agency, citing Koca, Turkey had enough protective face masks and enough capacity to produce more, with 200 million masks planned to be made by Turkish companies for China.
On Friday, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said that his country would evacuate 49 people � including 34 Turkish nationals, seven Azeris, seven Georgians and an Albanian � from the Chinese city of Wuhan, where the virus was first detected. Everyone will be quarantined upon their arrival in Turkey. The evacuation took place on Saturday.
Koca added that both the flight crew that evacuated people from China and the medical team would be placed under observation.
Overall, more than 24,000 novel coronavirus cases have been registered in China, with cases also reported in North America, Europe, the Asia-Pacific region and the middle East. The number of deaths from the virus is approaching 500, almost all of them in China.
According to the World Health Organization, the current coronavirus outbreak does not yet constitute a pandemic.
