ISTANBUL

Turkey on Tuesday repatriated one of its nationals who is suffering from the coronavirus but was unable to get treatment in Sudan. 

Mehmet Hanefi Aydin, 55, was sent home from a hospital in Sudan although he tested positive for the virus.

Aydin returned from Khartoum via an ambulance plane after his children pleaded for help on social media.

After arriving in Istanbul, he was taken to Marmara University Pendik Training and Research Hospital.

More than 3.64 million cases have been reported in 187 countries and regions since the virus emerged in China last December, with the US and Europe the world's hardest-hit areas.

A significant number of COVID-19 patients, nearly 1.2 million, have recovered, but the virus has claimed more than 255,000 lives, according to data compiled by US-based Johns Hopkins University.

*Writing by Seda Sevencan in Ankara