'Turkey currently passing over peak of pandemic'

By Gozde Bayar, Handan Kazanci and Erdogan Cagatay Zontur

ANKARA/ISTANBUL (AA) - Turkey is currently passing over the peak of the novel coronavirus pandemic but the drops in numbers must be consistent, the country’s health minister said on Wednesday.

“The number of recovered patients in Turkey in the past 24 hours reaches twice that of newly diagnosed patients,” Fahrettin Koca said in a press conference following the meeting of the Coronavirus Scientific Advisory Board in Ankara.

The coronavirus death rate in Turkey dropped for intubated patients from 74% to 14%, for intensive care patients from 58% to 10%, Koca added.

As for the coronavirus cases in the country, he said at least 7,428 healthcare workers have been infected with COVID-19, nearly 6.5% of all cases.

As part of the country's efforts to curb the virus' spread, Turkey has deployed 5,849 filiation teams for monitoring. The teams have so far detected 468,390 people who had been in contact with the virus, he noted.

He also stressed Turkey had the lowest death rate from coronavirus among the European countries, and the country ranked 80th in the world.

On Tuesday, a total of 5,018 patients were discharged from medical care after recovering from the virus in Turkey. The death toll from coronavirus reached 2,992 and the number of registered coronavirus cases rose to 114,653.

After originating in China last December, COVID-19 has spread to at least 185 countries and regions. Europe and the US are currently the worst-hit regions.

The pandemic has killed over 218,500 people worldwide, with 3.14 million infections, while more than 948,500 patients have recovered, according to figures compiled by the US-based Johns Hopkins University.