Turkey’s new coronavirus cases surpassed 1,000 for the first time in three weeks on Tuesday according to an official tally, breaching what the government has called a critical threshold to possibly reconsider rules, Reuters reported.
The 1,083 new COVID-19 cases reflect a “severe” rise in recent days that raises concerns as Turkey wrapped up a four-day holiday weekend that occurred while many Turks were taking domestic vacations, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca tweeted.
The virus has killed 5,765 and infected 234,934 in total in the country, which mostly lifted its partial lockdown on June 1. New cases had hovered just below 1,000 since July 13.
The health ministry data showed 583 infected people are in critical condition, 8.5 percent of whom have developed pneumonia.
A total of 218,491 people have been declared recovered since the beginning of the epidemic, with an increase of 994 on Tuesday.