Turkey's health minister said the border with Iran would be closed from Sunday due to the number of coronavirus cases in its eastern neighbor, The Associated Press reported.
Fahrettin Koca said flights from Iran would also cease from 8pm local time. The road and rail crossings between the two countries would be shut three hours earlier.
On Friday, Turkey introduced health checks on people arriving from Iran. Speaking in Istanbul, Koca said eight travelers had been turned back since then.
“By effective early measures we have been able to keep this disease and epidemic away from our country up to now,” Koca said. “However, the appearance of the disease in our neighbor Iran, the increase in cases and deaths, has alarmed us.”