Turkey announced 1,256 new coronavirus cases on Saturday, 50 more than yesterday, bringing the total number of cases to 246,861, according to a chart posted on Twitter by Health Minister Fahrettin Koca.
“We’ve reached the highest number of daily new cases in the last 45 days,” Koca tweeted.
The COVID-19 death toll, meanwhile, increased by 21 to 5,955 in the last 24 hours, the chart indicated.
Beginning three 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 increased by 12 to 668, 7.6 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, 992 more people were declared to have recovered on Thursday, bringing the total number of recoveries to 229,972.
Turkey has conducted 5,659,286 tests so far, with 67,214 more in the last 24 hours.
On average, the country conducts some 65,000 tests per 1 million of population, while the figure for the developed countries is over 100,000.
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.