Turkey Says Coronavirus Cases Increase to 18, Schools, Bars Shut

(Bloomberg) -- Turkey has 18 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the country, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said in a tweet early Monday.

After closing schools for two weeks, Turkey ordered all bars and clubs shut down from Monday. It also placed about 10,000 Turkish pilgrims returning from a pilgrimage to Mecca, or Umrah, under quarantine in dorms in two central Anatolian cities after tracing one of the confirmed cases to those who’ve arrived from Saudi Arabia.

“The number of new cases is 12 and two of them are related to the first confirmed case,” Koca said.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron will hold a teleconference on Tuesday to discuss ways to increase cooperation to stem the flow of refugees to Europe from Turkey. Originally they were set to meet in Istanbul, but the health emergency forced a change in plans.

Turkey has already suspended flights to several European countries in an attempt to curb the outbreak, while making plans to evacuate its citizens from Europe.

--With assistance from Inci Ozbek.

To contact the reporters on this story: Selcan Hacaoglu in Ankara at shacaoglu@bloomberg.net;Firat Kozok in Ankara at fkozok@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Onur Ant at oant@bloomberg.net, Andrew Davis, Paul Abelsky

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