Turkey announced 1,412 new coronavirus cases on Thursday, 109 more than yesterday, bringing the total number of cases to 254,520, according to a chart posted on Twitter by Health Minister Fahrettin Koca.
The number of daily new cases was the highest since early June.
The COVID-19 death toll, meanwhile, increased by 19 to 6,058 in the last 24 hours, the chart indicated.
“The number of new cases per day, which was on average 1,245 last week, has exceeded 1,400. Meanwhile, the number of tests per day, which was some 41,000 on Aug. 3, is now over 92,000,” 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 16 to 735, 7.3 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, 882 more people were declared to have recovered on Thursday, bringing the total number of recoveries to 234,797.
Turkey has conducted more than 6 million tests so far, with 92,301 more in the last 24 hours.
On average, the country conducts some 71,000 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.