Turkey: Coronavirus cases top 250,000

By Burak Bir and Burak Dag

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey on Monday confirmed 1,233 new coronavirus cases over the last 24 hours, bringing the tally to 250,542, according to the country's health minister.

A total of 1,002 patients have recovered from COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, over the past day, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on Twitter.

Citing the Health Ministry data, Koca said the total number of recoveries has reached 231,971.

The death toll climbed to 5,996 as 22 more people lost their lives over the past day.

Healthcare professionals conducted 74,846 tests for the disease in the last 24 hours, raising the tally to over 5.8 million.

Koca said that although new patients can easily recover from the disease, the spread of virus increases the number of seriously ill people.

Number of active coronavirus cases in the country stand at 12,575, he added.

Since first appearing in China last December, the novel coronavirus has spread to at least 188 countries and regions. The US, Brazil, India and Russia are currently the countries hardest hit in the world.

The pandemic has killed nearly 776,400 people worldwide, with infections surpassing 21.74 million and recoveries over 13.74 million, according to figures compiled by the US' Johns Hopkins University.