ANKARA (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 23rd April, 2020) Ural Airlines and Turkish Airlines organized special flights to take home 242 Russian citizens from Antalya and Istanbul on Tuesday and Wednesday, the Russian Consulate General in Istanbul said.
"Special flights by Ural Airlines - Antalya-Kazan and Antalya-Yekaterinburg - as well as by Turkish Airlines from Istanbul to Moscow April 21-22, took Russian citizens living in Moscow, the Moscow Region, the Ural and Volga Federal districts to Russia. Overall, 242 Russians were transported," it said.
The flights were organized in close coordination with the Russian Foreign Ministry and other departments.
On March 27, amid the coronavirus pandemic, Russia stopped regular and charter flights with other countries. The exceptions are flights to take citizens home, as well as cargo, mail, sanitary and humanitarian flights, flights of empty planes for maintenance, transit flights with landing for refueling or changing crews in Russia and flights carried out in line with individual decisions of the Russian government.
The World Health Organization (WHO) on March 11 declared the outbreak of the new coronavirus a pandemic. According to the latest WHO data, more than 2,471,000 cases of COVID-19 have been registered in the world, and over 169,000 people have died from the disease.
Russia's overall number of coronavirus cases has nearly reached 58,000. The country's COVID-19 death toll has topped 510. Over 4,420 people have recovered.
