Turkey confirms 1,172 new cases of COVID-19

By Firdevs Bulut and Burak Dag

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey on Saturday confirmed 1,172 additional cases of COVID-19, raising the tally to 239,622, according to the country's health minister.

"Pneumonia rates are down across Turkey. We have reached [nearly] 64,000 tests daily. The highest [daily test] number [so far] has been 58,000," Fahrettin Koca said on Twitter.

"There is no major change in our hospital [bed] occupancy rates," as the numbers of new and recovered patients are close to each other, Koca noted.

"Good results depend on tight measures," he stressed.

The country confirmed 1,082 more recoveries from the novel coronavirus, raising the total to 222,656, Koca added.

The death toll stood at 5,829 after 16 more people died over the last 24 hours.

Healthcare professionals conducted 63,842 tests for the disease over the past day, raising the tally to over 5.2 million.

The coronavirus pandemic has claimed over 722,800 lives in 188 countries and regions since it originated in China last December.

The US, Brazil, India, and Russia are currently the worst-hit countries in the world.

More than 19.45 million COVID-19 cases have been reported worldwide, with recoveries exceeding 11.78 million, according to figures compiled by the US' Johns Hopkins University.