KHARTOUM, Sudan

Sudan has temporarily opened its main airport to enable the return of nationals from overseas, three days after it shut all border crossings amid coronavirus concerns, an aviation official said.

Civil Aviation Authority spokesman Abdul Hafiz Abdul Rahim said Khartoum airport was made operational till Saturday morning.

“We have decided to open air traffic for 48 hours starting from 07.45 a.m. local time (0545GMT) Thursday to allow the Sudanese stranded outside to return home,” he told Anadolu Agency.

While around 1,000 nationals returned from Saudi Arabia last week via a passenger ship, many are returning through the land border from Egypt.

In Sudan, of the two people infected, one has died so far.

COVID-19 emerged in Wuhan, China last December, and has spread to at least 160 countries and territories. The World Health Organization declared the outbreak a pandemic.

Out of more than 235,000 confirmed cases, the death toll now exceeds 9,300, and over 84,500 have recovered, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University in the U.S.

Despite the rising number of cases, most who become infected suffer only mild symptoms and recover.