Turkey announced 1,183 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday, 11 more than yesterday, bringing the total number of cases to 243,180, according to a chart posted on Twitter by Health Minister Fahrettin Koca.
The COVID-19 death toll, meanwhile, increased by 15 to 5,873 in the last 24 hours, the chart indicated.
“In the last three days, there’s a 32 percent decrease in hospital admissions. But the upward trend in the number of patients in critical condition, one of the most important indicators of the spread of the disease, is continuing,” Koca tweeted.
Beginning two weeks ago, 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 617, 14 more than yesterday, 8.2 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, 1,185 more people were declared to have recovered on Thursday, bringing the total number of recoveries to 226,155.
Turkey has conducted 5,387,751 tests so far, with 61,716 more in the last 24 hours.
On average, the country conducts some 61,500 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.