By Handan Kazanci and Burak Dag
ANKARA/ISTANBUL (AA) - The number of critical COVID-19 patients continues to drop in Turkey, the country's health minister Thursday said on Twitter.
Stressing the significance of measures against the virus, Fahrettin Koca noted: "The number of our recovered patients is close to the number of new patients."
Turkey reported 1,407 new patients and 1,402 new recoveries from the novel coronavirus over the past 24 hours, according to the ministry data.
The country's overall patient count now stands at 320,070, with recoveries totaling 281,151.
Nearly 113,546 more COVID-19 tests were conducted in the past 24 hours, bringing the overall tally to over 10.49 million.
The death toll from the virus reached 8,262, with 67 additional fatalities.
The number of patients in critical condition now stands at 1,507, the data also showed.
Across the world, COVID-19 has claimed more than 1 million lives in 188 countries and regions since last December.
The US, India, and Brazil are currently the worst-hit countries.
Over 34.09 million cases have been reported worldwide, with recoveries surpassing 23.69 million, indicate the figures compiled by the US-based Johns Hopkins University.