Turkey, Azerbaijan suspend road, air transportation

ANKARA

The Turkish and Azerbaijani presidents in a phone call on Saturday decided to temporarily suspend all road and air transportation between the countries.

According to a statement from the Turkish Communications Directorate, Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Ilham Aliyev took the measure in the wake of concerns over the coronavirus pandemic.

The restriction, however, only applies to travelers and excludes cargo.

Turkey has so far confirmed five cases of coronavirus.

The country has taken several measures to stem the virus such as temporarily closing schools and universities, halting events and public activities, postponing foreign visits, and barring spectators at sports events.

After emerging in China last December, the novel coronavirus, officially known as COVID-19, has spread to 129 countries and territories.

The global death toll from the virus has crossed 5,300 with more than 142,000 cases confirmed worldwide, according to the World Health Organization, which has termed Europe as the new epicenter of the virus.

A vast majority of those who get infected recover from the illness.