Turkey: COVID-19 Cases Near 200,000 Mark

Turkey on Tuesday confirmed 1,293 more cases of the novel coronavirus, bringing the total tally to nearly 200,000, according to the country's health minister.

Citing the Health Ministry data, Fahrettin Koca said on Twitter that a total of 1,302 COVID-19 patients recovered in Turkey over the past 24 hours, bringing the overall number to 173,111.

Turkey registered 1,293 new cases of COVID-19 in the past day and the total number of infections nationwide reached 199,906, showed the data.

The country's death toll from the coronavirus rose to 5,131, with 16 new fatalities reported over the last 24 hours.

Healthcare professionals conducted over 50,000 tests for the disease since Monday, raising the total count to over 3.38 million.

Koca reiterated that Turkey was determined to lower the number of coronavirus infections, urging the public to exercise more caution in following measures meant to curb the outbreak.

He added that there were seven fewer intubated patients and 81 fewer daily cases than on Monday.

The coronavirus pandemic has claimed over 506,000 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 10.3 million COVID-19 cases have been reported around the world so far, with recoveries exceeding 5.26 million, according to figures compiled by the US' Johns Hopkins University. -