Germany extends travel warning to Turkey over pandemic concerns
Germany has extended its travel warning to Turkey
and 129 other countries considered an increased risk for infection from
COVID-19, Sözcü newspaper reported on Wednesday.
The Robert Koch Institute, Germany’s state agency
responsible for disease control and prevention, said it prepared the list of
“no-go” countries based on the number of people infected with the novel
coronavirus per 100,000 people, according to Sözcü, which added that by
Berlin’s calculation there must be at least 51,500 positive cases currently in
Turkey.
On Tuesday, Turkey’s Health Ministry announced the
country had registered over 227,000 cases and over 210,000 recoveries from the
coronavirus since March 11.
The travel warnings were issued based on hygiene
measures, contact tracking, testing capacity and the availability of
transparent data, Sözcü said.
The extension of the travel warning until the end of
August is considered a blow for Turkey’s $35-billion tourism industry, which
has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic. Turkey has seen a rise in daily
recorded coronavirus cases after its government began to significantly ease
COVID-19 restrictions on June 1.
Millions of German citizens of Turkish origin live
in Germany. Almost 5 million people visited Turkey from Germany last year,
ranking the country second after Russia for the number of tourists.
