Turkey: Rate of patient contacts to contract virus up by 1.3 times

By Firdevs Bulut and Burak Dag

ANKARA (AA) - Compared to May, the rate of people in contact with COVID-19 patients to turn into cases rises across Turkey by 1.3 times, Turkey's Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on Twitter.

Turkey on Sunday confirmed 1,103 additional recoveries from the novel coronavirus, raising the tally to 223,759, according to Koca.

The country registered 1,182 new infections of COVID-19, bringing the caseload to 240,804, he added.

The death toll stood at 5,844 after 15 more people died of the virus over the last 24 hours.

Healthcare professionals conducted 61,446 tests for the disease in the same period, pushing the tally to over 5.26 million.

The pandemic has claimed over 728,000 lives in 188 countries and regions since it originated in China last December, according to US-based Johns Hopkins University.

More than 19.7 million infections have been reported worldwide, including over 11.96 million recoveries.

The US, Brazil, and India have the highest number of cases -- over 10 million in total.