Turkey’s Erdogan tests negative for virus, to end isolation

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has tested negative for COVID-19 for the past two days and is expected to return to his normal schedule. Erdogan, 67, has been working from his residence since testing positive for the virus on Feb. 5, following a visit to Ukraine. His wife, Emine, also contracted the virus. The state-run Anadolu Agency quoted Erdogan’s doctor, Serkan Topaloglu as saying on Thursday that the president could return to his routine schedule as early as Friday. Topaloglu said the president was free of any COVID-19 symptoms, while his wife was still displaying mild symptoms in the form of an “upper respiratory infection.” Turkey has seen record levels of COVID-19 cases in recent weeks, with 108,563 new infections reported by the Health Ministry on Wednesday.