Turkey: Over 2,300 recover from COVID-19 in 24 hours

By Erdogan Cagatay Zontur and Handan Kazanci

ANKARA / ISTANBUL (AA) - More than 2,300 people recovered from the novel coronavirus in Turkey over the past 24 hours, according to the country's health minister on Wednesday.

A total of 2,311 COVID-19 patients recovered from the virus, bringing the total number to 175,422, Fahrettin Koca said following a scientific committee meeting in the capital Ankara.

Turkey registered 1,192 new cases of COVID-19 in the past day and the total number of infections nationwide reached 201,098, showed the data.

The country's death toll from the coronavirus rose to 5,150, with 19 new fatalities reported over the last 24 hours.

Healthcare professionals conducted over 52,000 tests for the disease since Monday, raising the overall count to over 3.43 million.

Nearly 54% of all COVID-19 patients in the country are in the metropolis Istanbul, Koca said.

He noted that there had been decreasing trend in the average age of COVID-19 cases over the last month, with most cases occurring between the ages of 25 and 45.

Koca stressed that the idea that the virus had weakened and that its spread had slowed was misleading and lacked scientific evidence.

"Anyone who is conscious about the COVID-19 pandemic and complies with the rules is a hero that saves lives in today's conditions," he added.

The coronavirus pandemic has claimed over 512,000 lives in 188 countries and regions since it originated in China last December.

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

More than 10.5 million COVID-19 cases have been reported around the world so far, with recoveries exceeding 5.38 million, according to figures compiled by the US' Johns Hopkins University.