Turkey reports 1,443 new coronavirus cases

By Firdevs Bulut Kartal and Burak Bir

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey on Monday confirmed 1,443 new cases of the novel coronavirus, bringing the country's tally to date to 259,692.

On Twitter, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said 743 patients recovered from COVID-19 over the past day, pushing the total number of recoveries to 237,908.

Meanwhile, the death toll in the country reached 6,139, as 18 more people lost their lives.

Healthcare professionals did 95,943 more tests to diagnose the virus over the last 24 hours, bringing the tally to more than 6.4 million.

Since it originated in China last December, the coronavirus pandemic has claimed nearly 810,000 lives in 188 countries and regions. The US, Brazil, India, and Russia are currently the worst-hit countries.

Nearly 23.5 million COVID-19 cases have been reported worldwide, with recoveries exceeding 15.16 million, according to figures compiled by the US' Johns Hopkins University.