Anadolu Agency's Morning Briefing - June 12, 2020

Anadolu Agency is here with a rundown of the latest developments on the coronavirus pandemic and other news in Turkey and around the world.

Coronavirus in Turkey

With Turkey starting the normalization process from the novel coronavirus outbreak as of June, the number of recoveries neared 148,000 on Thursday.

A total of 1,021 more patients were discharged from hospitals over the past day, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on Twitter.

The country's death toll from the virus rose to 4,763 as it reported 17 new fatalities.

According to the results of nearly half a million tests conducted in a day, the total number of COVID-19 cases nationwide reached 174,023 with 987 new infections.

Turkey also continued to help other countries fight the pandemic and sent a plane carrying medical supplies to Afghanistan.

Receiving the aid, Afghanistan thanked the brotherly nation of Turkey for sending generous medical supplies which reached Kabul on Thursday.

An agreement was also signed between Turkey's deputy health minister and the ambassador of Venezuela to send medical supplies to the latter.

Amid its normalization process, Turkey lifted restrictions on entering and exiting the country for Turkish citizens and foreign nationals except for the country's land border with Iran.

Istanbul Airport also partially resumed international flights, which have been suspended for two months as part of measures taken against the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Turkey's national flag carrier Turkish Airlines began scheduling flights again from Istanbul Airport to Germany, the UK and the Netherlands.

Global coronavirus developments

Global coronavirus recoveries surpassed the 3.5 million mark Thursday, according to a running tally by US-based Johns Hopkins University.

The US has the highest number of recoveries with more than 538,600, followed by Brazil with over 429,000.

While the US continues to be the worst hit by the virus, being the only country to cross the 1 million threshold with an excess of 2 million cases and more than 113,000 deaths, the new epicenter of Brazil has more than 802,000 cases and nearly 41,000 fatalities.

Italy also reported 53 more coronavirus-related fatalities, bringing the death toll in the country to 34,167.

The tally of active infections fell again on Thursday, bringing the total to 30,637 with a decline of 1,073. Recoveries continued to climb, surging to 171,338 as more patients left intensive care, easing pressure on Italy's strained healthcare system.

As Spain's education minister announced the country's plans to get students back to school in September, the Health Ministry reported 427 more COVID-19 cases Thursday.

The country's death toll has not been properly updated in weeks. The total has moved up by just three to reach 27,136 over the past seven days, although the Health Ministry reported that 32 people have died during the last week.

Meanwhile, British authorities announced a further 151 deaths, bringing Europe's worst coronavirus death toll to 41,279.

A total of 291,409 people have tested positive in the UK.

The coronavirus death toll in India rose to 8,102 and the number of cases reached 286,579 after the highest single-day spike of 357 fatalities and 9,996 cases reported in the past 24 hours, according to the country's Health Ministry.

Libya

The Libyan army said Thursday that it had gained control of a main supply line used by warlord Khalifa Haftar's militias, days after it regained full control over the capital Tripoli from forces loyal to the eastern-based renegade commander.

Also, mass graves have been found in the city of Tarhuna, the last stronghold of warlord Haftar before it was liberated by the Libyan army last week.

Over 106 bodies were also found by Libyan authorities last week in a hospital in the city.

Due to the Haftar militia's aggression in the capital Tripoli, around 500,000 Libyans have been displaced and around 120,000 homes were damaged, the Libyan government said Thursday.

Meanwhile, demining experts from the Turkish Armed Forces started clearing civilian areas in Libya on Thursday.

The move comes at the request of the Libyan government to ensure the safe return of civilians to their homes located in areas liberated from Haftar's militia.

Other developments

The death toll from a boat wreck off the coast of Tunisia's Sfax city has risen to 52. It was en route to Italy with 53 asylum seekers on board.

One passenger is still missing.

A Norwegian court on Thursday sentenced a man who attacked a mosque to 21 years in prison, the maximum term possible.

On Aug. 10 last year, Philip Manshaus killed his 17-year-old stepsister at home and stormed the nearest mosque during the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday in Baerum outside Oslo. -