All passengers to Turkey will be required to produce a negative coronavirus test result taken within the past 72 hours of their travel starting Monday, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said.

Passengers will not be allowed on board planes to Turkey unless they provide a negative PCR test, Koca said on Twitter on Friday, adding the same requirement will apply to land passengers from Wednesday.

Passengers flying from Britain, South Africa and Denmark will separately be taken into quarantine upon arrival, Koca added.

Meanwhile, Turkey will receive its first doses of the coronavirus vaccine from China on Monday, Koca said, adding it also agreed to buy the vaccine made by Germany’s BioNTech and its US partner Pfizer.

The daily virus death toll in Turkey reached 256 on Friday.

There were 17,543 new cases on Friday, bringing the total number to 2.11 million since Turkey reported its first case in March, official figures showed.

Source: dpa/MIA