Reuters :
Turkey has halted flights and all direct travel from Bangladesh, Brazil, South Africa, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka due to new variants of the coronavirus, the Interior Ministry said.
Those who arrive from other places but have been in the countries listed within the last 14 days will need to show a negative PCR test within a maximum of 72 hours before entry and they will need to quarantine for 14 days, it said.
Those arriving from Pakistan and Afghanistan or who have been there in the last 14 days will need to quarantine in Turkey for 10 days upon arrival, it said.
Those coming from the United Kingdom, Iran, Egypt and Singapore will need to show a negative PCR test within 72 hours prior to arrival, the ministry added.
Turkey has administered over 48.3 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines since it launched a mass vaccination campaign in January, according to official figures.
Turkey’s overall case tally is now over 5.41 million, while the nationwide death toll has reached 49,634 with 58 new fatalities.
Amid a nationwide fall in virus cases, Turkey is set to end all virus-related restrictions starting this Thursday [July 1].
Groups representing Europe’s largest airlines and airports have warned of chaos and hours-long queues unless countries better coordinate the roll-out of the EU’s digital Covid-19 certificate and ensure passengers are processed before arriving at airports.
The European Union’s system of digital Covid-19 travel certificates is due to come into force on Thursday, but airports group ACI and airlines representative bodies A4E, IATA and ERA warned in a letter to EU national leaders of a “worrying patchwork of approaches” across the continent.
“As passenger traffic increases in the coming weeks, the risk of chaos at European airports is real,” the groups said in the joint letter sent on Monday and seen by Reuters news agency.
