Forty-one more people have died of COVID-19 over the past 24 hours, Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca announced on Saturday, while the total number of cases in the country has reached 148,067.
The country’s total death toll stands at 4,096.
According to a chart posted on Twitter by the minister, 1,610 more cases were confirmed as a result of 42,236 tests conducted over the past 24 hours.
According to the data 2,004 people were released from hospitals in the past 24 hours, bringing the number of recovered patients to 108,137.
The minister said the number of COVID-19 patients needing intensive care and those who die in intensive care due to coronavirus continues to decrease.
“There is a foreseeable slowdown in the speed of recovery. Staying at home plays a big role in our fight against the spread of the coronavirus. Let’s stay at home,” tweeted the minister.
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 15 major cities only on 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 4,683,467 people worldwide and killing at least 310,816 as of Saturday. Some 1,789,076 people have recovered, according to Worldometers.info.