By Sena Guler
ANKARA (AA) - Anadolu Agency is here with a rundown of the latest developments on the coronavirus pandemic and other news in Turkey and around the world.
- Virus in Turkey
As Turkey approached the end of the first month since entering the normalization process from the novel coronavirus outbreak, it reported 1,472 recoveries Thursday, bringing the tally to 165,706.
The country's death toll from the virus rose to 5,046 as it reported 21 new fatalities in the past 24 hours. A total of 1,458 new infections brought the number of cases to 193,115.
Health Minister Fahrettin Koca noted the rising number of cases and asked the nation to adhere to the protective measures against the virus.
- Security, anti-terror ops in Turkey
Turkish security forces neutralized five PKK terrorists Thursday as part of Operation Claw-Tiger in northern Iraq.
The terrorists were targeted in the Haftanin region in an air-backed operation, the National Defense Ministry said on Twitter.
A Turkish court in southern Hatay province also remanded a suspect over links to the Daesh/ISIS terror group.
Separately, the PKK terror group did not hesitate to target civilians once again and injured two employees working for a water and sewerage company in the southeastern province of Hakkari.
The terrorists attacked the workers with long-barreled weapons and rockets. The wounded were taken to the city center by helicopter and treated at the state hospital.
Also Thursday, the Turkish Coast Guard rescued 62 asylum seekers pushed by Greek forces into Turkey’s territorial waters.
They were rescued in the Aegean Sea off Turkey's Canakkale province.
- Coronavirus outbreak across world
Since first appearing in Wuhan, China last December, the novel coronavirus has spread to at least 188 countries and regions.
The pandemic has killed nearly 489,000 people worldwide, with an excess of 9.5 million confirmed cases and greater than 4.8 million recoveries, according to figures compiled by US-based Johns Hopkins University.
Fighting a second wave of infections, China’s capital Beijing reported 13 more coronavirus cases Thursday.
Beijing has seen another wave of infections since the second week of June. More than 220 cases have been reported since June 11.
China has reported 4,641 deaths since the coronavirus was first detected in December in Wuhan city in Hubei province.
In Russia, the number of COVID-19 cases has been dropping over the last seven days from daily growth of 7,972 last Friday to 7,113 reported Thursday.
The total number of infections reached 613,994 with active cases accounting for about a third of this number, according to data from the country's emergency task force.
As police in Spain try to hunt down the man thought to be behind the spread of the coronavirus among 20 people in a small town in Extremadura, the Ministry of Health reported 400 new virus cases Thursday.
This is the highest number of new daily infections in a week, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in Spain to 247,486. The death toll in the country rose to 28,330 as three more fatalities were reported over the last day.
In the UK, 149 more people died from the novel coronavirus across the country over the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 43,230. Some 307,980 people have tested positive for the virus.
The World Health Organization reported Thursday that Europe recorded a rise in weekly COVID-19 cases for the first time in months as restrictions are being eased across the continent.
- Other developments
A huge explosion occurred east of Iran’s capital Tehran late Thursday that lit up the night sky.
The semi-official Tasnim news agency reported that the explosion occurred at a gas depot near Defense Ministry sites. No casualties have been reported.
In China, a boat with 27 people on board capsized in the Lancang river in Xishuangbanna Dai, an autonomous region in southwestern Yunnan province.
While nine have been rescued, a search operation is continuing for the other 18 people.
The divided Koreas marked the 70th anniversary of the Korean War on Thursday, while Seoul and Washington have urged Pyongyang to abide by the 2018 agreements for peace on the peninsula.
South Korean Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo and US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said in a joint statement that they “will continue to back diplomacy for the complete denuclearization of North Korea,” according to Yonhap News Agency.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also commemorated the day in a video message.
“On this historic day, we commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Korean War,” Erdogan said in the video sent to a ceremony held in South Korea. “I remember our hallowed martyrs with grace and our veterans with gratitude.”
Turkey was the first country after the US to answer the UN's call for military aid to South Korea after the North attacked in 1950.