Turkey’s confirmed cases of COVID-19, caused by the novel coronavirus, reached 78,546 on Friday, while the death toll increased to 1,769, according to a chart posted on Twitter by Health Minister Fahrettin Koca.
A curfew will be imposed over the weekend in the country’s 31 largest cities, as happened last weekend.
In the last 24 hours, 4,353 new cases were confirmed and 126 deaths were recorded, the chart indicated. More than 1,500 people were discharged from hospitals after receiving treatment for COVID-19.
There are 1,845 COVID-19 patients in intensive care units in Turkish hospitals.
Turkey has conducted 558,413 tests so far, with results for 40,270 of them received on Friday.
“You can see a surge in the number of cases, but the pace of the increase is slowing,” Koca told a press conference today, citing observations from hospitals.
Following a question from a reporter, he harshly criticized Ercüment Ovalı, a Turkish medical professor who tweeted that his team had successfully treated COVID-19 patients with an existing medicine.
“The procedure for scientific recovery is obvious. You shouldn’t play to people’s hopes on Twitter,” Koca said.