Russia's Government announced plans to restrict regular and charter air services between Russia and Turkey, effective April 15 to June 1, citing the status of the coronavirus pandemic.

In a brief statement, Moscow said operations will be limited to twice weekly Moscow-Istanbul service.

Russian travellers in Turkey will also be able to return to Russia and tour operators have been advised to suspend the sale of travel between Russia and Turkey for the affected period.

It added that the Russian Government will review the restrictions if the pandemic situation in Turkey stabilises.

The number of coronavirus cases in Turkey has spiralled the past few days prompting the Turkish government to reinstate tighter restrictions to normalize the spike in cases.

Turkey's daily count of coronavirus cases reached over 54,500 on Monday, according to its Health Ministry — with 2,671 symptomatic patients confirmed across the country.

Turkey's overall case tally reached 3.9 million, while the nationwide death toll has reached 34,182.