Turkey's health minister warns of rise in daily new COVID-19 cases

By Trend

Turkish health minister on Tuesday warned of an increase in daily new COVID-19 cases as the figure exceeded 1,000 for the first time in weeks, Trend reports citing Xinhua.

The country's confirmed cases increased by 1,083 and 18 more people died in the past 24 hours, taking the number of total cases to 234,934 and the death toll to 5,765, Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca tweeted on Tuesday.

He warned against the consequences of social contacts in the summer holiday and the recent Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha.

Meanwhile, 994 patients recovered in the last 24 hours, while the total number of recovered cases stood at 218,491, the minister said.

A total of 46,249 tests were conducted over the past day, with the overall number of tests reaching 4,973,466, he stated.

The rate of pneumonia in COVID-19 patients is 8.5 percent, the number of seriously ill patients is 583, Koca said.

Turkey reported the first COVID-19 case on March 1.

Turkey and China have supported each other in the fight against COVID-19.

Chinese doctors and medical experts held video conferences with Turkish counterparts to share China's experience in treating coronavirus patients, protecting medical workers, and controlling the spread of the virus.