Forty-seven more people have died of COVID-19 over the past 24 hours, Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca announced on Sunday, while the total number of cases in the country has reached 138,657.
The country’s total death toll stands at 3,786.
According to a chart posted on Twitter by the minister 1,542 more cases were confirmed as a result of 36,187 tests conducted over the past 24 hours.
According to the data 3,211 people were released from hospitals in the past 24 hours, bringing the number of recovered patients to 92,621.
“As a nation of 83 million, we changed this picture by obeying the [anti-coronavirus] measures. Let’s carry on our struggle without any concessions. The number of recovered patients will soon exceed 100,000. The number of [COVID-19] deaths and cases continue to fall gradually. Is it not worth a little more self-sacrifice?” Koca tweeted, referring to the daily death toll and new cases, which have been on a downward trajectory for more than 20 days.
Turkey recorded the first COVID-19 case on March 11.
The Turkish Medical Association (TMA) says Turkey’s official coronavirus death statistics do not include cases that strongly indicate COVID-19 but test negative.
Turkey has not implemented a full lockdown, and curfews are imposed in 31 major cities only on the weekends. People aged 65 and over as well as those 20 and under are prohibited from going outside as part of measures to contain the epidemic.
First seen in the Chinese city of Wuhan, COVID-19 has spread rapidly around the world, infecting over 4,168,125 people worldwide and killing at least 283,189 as of Sunday. Some 1,467,407 people have recovered, according to Worldometers.info.