Turkey announced 1,502 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday, 59 more than yesterday, bringing the total number of cases to 261,194, according to a chart posted on Twitter by Health Minister Fahrettin Koca.
It is the highest single-day increase since the mid-June.
The COVID-19 death toll, meanwhile, increased by 24 to 6,163 in the last 24 hours, the chart indicated.
Beginning last month, 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 15 to 811, 7.4 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, 887 more people were declared to have recovered on Tuesday, bringing the total number of recoveries to 237,908.
Turkey has conducted more than 6.5 million tests so far, with 98,231 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 way 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.