ANKARA, Feb. 23 (Xinhua) -- Turkey on Sunday temporarily closed all its four land border crossings with Iran over the COVID-19 cases in the neighboring country, a Turkish minister said.
"All transitions (from Iran to Turkey) are temporarily stopped," Turkish Minister of Health Fahrettin Koca told reporters.
But transitions from Turkey to Iran are still available, he noted.
All international flights from Iran were suspended unilaterally and temporarily as well, as "the increase in deaths in Iran means an alarm for us," Koca said.
The Turkish government decided to restrict border movements after 43 coronavirus cases were detected in Iran with eight deaths by Sunday, according to the Turkish minister.
Koca also announced that the five Iranian citizens who were taken to hospital in the eastern province of Van on Saturday with flu symptoms were shown to be negative for COVID-19.
