Turkish expats brought home to reach 15,000 by midnight

The number of Turkish citizens brought home and quarantined in different cities, as part of measures to stem the spread of coronavirus, will reach 15,000 by midnight tonight, said Turkey's foreign minister on Wednesday.

After attending a video conference meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said: "As part of our second evacuation operation, in total 15,000 citizens [along with those previously brought since April 16] will be brought home and quarantined in different cities by midnight tonight, the rest will also be brought back to the country later on."

"This is the biggest evacuation operation in the history of Turkey. We conduct the operation successfully and smoothly," the top diplomat added.

Noting that he has spoken with Turkey's ambassadors in 105 countries regarding COVID-19 pandemic via video conference, Çavuşoğlu said Turkey closely watches developments related to Turkish citizens living abroad.

Çavuşoğlu also said: "Everyone is working to diversify their resources to meet their needs, particularly in the field of food safety and health. All countries, while diversification list, we see that they place Turkey in the first three. This is an important opportunity for us and we need to prepare ourselves accordingly."

He added that more than 39,000 Turkish expats from more than 70 countries were brought to Turkey in the first stage.

Vice President Fuat Oktay had announced that under the instruction of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, on April 16, Turkey launched the second evacuation operation to bring back around 25,000 Turkish nationals from 59 countries before the beginning of Ramadan.

Turkey has registered over 98,600 coronavirus cases, with the death toll standing at 2,376.

After being first detected in China late last year, the virus has spread to 185 countries and regions.

It has killed over 182,700 people and infected around 2.62 million, while more than 706,700 have recovered, according to the U.S.-based Johns Hopkins University.

* Writing by Burak Dag.