Turkey Releases Weekly Provincial COVID-19 Statistics

Turkey's health minister announced the latest weekly infection rates of COVID-19 across Turkey.

"Restrictions and measures started to reduce the rate of increase," Fahrettin Koca said on Twitter on Sunday, sharing the data recorded between April 10-16.

The number of cases per 100,000 people, according to the data, went up in 75 provinces and down in six provinces.

The number of cases per 100,000 people was over 920 in metropolis Istanbul, up from 804 in the previous week, and 534 in the capital Ankara from 419, and 351 in the western Izmir province from 304.

According to the data, northwestern Duzce province had the highest increase rate this week with 521 per 100,000 people, up by 166 people from the previous week.

The provinces of Gumushane, Artvin, Siirt, Kahramanmaras, and Edirne had the lowest COVID-19 infections per 100,000 people.

The provinces which registered decrease in case numbers included Kirklareli, Kilis, Samsun, Osmaniye, Adiyaman, and Cankiri.

Since Turkey began a mass COVID-vaccination campaign on Jan. 14, it has administered over 20 million coronavirus vaccine jabs, according to official figures.

More than 12.2 million people to date have received their first doses, while second doses have been given to over 7.79 million.

In the face of rising case and fatality numbers, the country announced the return of weekend curfews in high-risk areas, as well as other restrictions, in addition to special measures for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Since December 2019, the pandemic has claimed over 3 million lives in 192 countries and regions, according to figures compiled by the US' Johns Hopkins University. Over 141.4 million cases have been reported worldwide, with recoveries now over 80.8 million.

The US, India, and Brazil remain the worst-hit countries in terms of the number of cases.​​​​​​​ -