Turkey announced 1,263 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday, 30 more than yesterday, bringing the total number of cases to 251,805, according to a chart posted on Twitter by Health Minister Fahrettin Koca.
The COVID-19 death toll, meanwhile, increased by 20 to 6,016 in the last 24 hours, the chart indicated.
“The coronavirus test results announced daily in this chart indicate infections that occurred some 10 days ago. According to the results, 1,263 more people were infected with the virus 10 days ago in places where preventative measures were disregarded,” Koca tweeted.
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 17 to 703, 7.5 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, 942 more people were declared to have recovered on Tuesday, bringing the total number of recoveries to 232, 913.
Turkey has conducted 5,882,406 tests so far, with 82,318 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.