Turkey announced 1,178 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, 95 more than yesterday, bringing the total number of cases to 236,112, according to a chart posted on Twitter by Health Minister Fahrettin Koca.
“The number of new cases increased by 88 yesterday from the previous day and by 95 today from yesterday,” Koca tweeted, calling on the public to comply with social distancing and face mask requirements.
The COVID-19 death toll, meanwhile, increased by 19 to 5,784 in the last 24 hours, the chart indicated.
Beginning last week, the health ministry chart no longer showed the number of intensive care patients and those on ventilators but instead reported 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 down to 582, 8.4 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, 1,015 more people were declared to have recovered on Wednesday, bringing the total number of recoveries to 219,506.
Turkey has conducted more than 5 million tests so far, with 53,842 more in the last 24 hours.
On average, the country conducts some 59,500 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.