Turkey said Thursday it would shut all schools for two weeks and bar spectators from football matches through April after recording its first case of the new coronavirus.

It followed a nearly six-hour cabinet meeting led by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Universities will take a three-week holiday from Monday, while schools for all ages will be on holiday for a week, followed by a week of home-schooling, said presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin in televised comments.

Spectators will be barred from football matches and other sporting events until the end of April, he added.

Erdogan's foreign trips will be suspended for an indefinite amount of time, and public servants will need special permission to travel abroad.

The measures follow the announcement of Turkey's first case of COVID-19 on Wednesday. 

Kalin said the man was in "good" condition, and that his relatives were under observation and had not yet tested positive for the virus. 

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