UPDATE - Turkey reports over 145,000 recoveries from virus

UPDATES WITH MORE REMARKS

By Burak Bir and Firdevs Bulut

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey on Wednesday confirmed 2,241 daily recoveries from the novel coronavirus, as the country continues easing measures against the pandemic, according to its health minister.

The total number of recoveries from the disease hit 146,839, as 2,241 more patients were discharged from hospitals over the past day, Fahrettin Koca said at a news conference after the Science Council meeting, citing Health Ministry data.

"Following stay-home orders for those over the age of 65 years, rate of COVID-19 infection in this age group declined by 50%," the minister said.

Koca said that guideline in the process of normalization is the fact that the risk continues, adding it will be possible to reach the very last case only by following the measures.

"There was an increase in COVID-19 cases in the last two to three days in the Turkish capital Ankara, however, today, there was a decline in Ankara," Koca said, adding that there is also a partial increase in Turkey’s central Anatolian, eastern and southeastern regions.

Touching upon measures for travelers, Koca said that unlike Europe, they want all citizens coming from abroad to undergo a medical screening.

Referring to antibody test study, Koca said that this will allow health authorities to know about immune status of people on the basis of cities.

The country's death toll from the virus rose to 4,746, as it reported 17 new fatalities over the last 24 hours.

Healthcare professionals performed 36,521 tests for the disease in the past 24 hours, raising the total number to more than 2.45 million.

According to test results, the total number of COVID-19 cases nationwide reached 173,036, with 922 new infections.

Since first appearing in China last December, the novel coronavirus has spread to at least 188 countries and regions.

The US, Brazil, Russia and several European countries are currently the hardest-hit in the world.

The pandemic has killed more than 413,000 people worldwide, with over 7.29 million confirmed cases and more than 3.4 million recoveries, according to figures compiled by the US’ Johns Hopkins University.