Turkey announced 967 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, 25 more than yesterday, bringing the total number of cases to 228,924, according to a chart posted on Twitter by Health Minister Fahrettin Koca.
“The number of patients in critical condition increased to 561 from 542 yesterday,” Koca tweeted, sounding a bit worried, adding that the number of new cases has also been trending upward.
The COVID-19 death toll, meanwhile, increased by 15 to 5,674 in the last 24 hours, the chart indicated.
Beginning Wednesday, the health ministry chart will no longer show the number of intensive care patients and those on ventilators but will instead report the number of patients in critical condition and the percentage of patients among all cases who have developed pneumonia due to the coronavirus.
Today’s chart indicated that the number of patients in critical condition is 561, 9.3 percent of whom have developed pneumonia.
Since COVID-19 is a respiratory disease, in severe cases it causes pneumonia. According to experts, some 15 percent of coronavirus cases are severe, and nearly 5 percent of patients need ventilators to breathe.
Meanwhile, 982 more people were declared to have recovered on Wednesday, bringing the total number of recoveries to 213,539.
Turkey has conducted 4,754,331 tests so far, with 43,236 more in the last 24 hours.
On average, the country conducts 56,325 tests per 1 million of population, better than countries like the Netherlands and France but far worse than the UK, the US and Germany.
Turkey reported its first COVID-19 case on March 11. The country eased preventative measures at the start of June, opening shopping malls, cafes, restaurants and mosques.