Turkey on Wednesday reported its highest number of daily COVID-19 cases for the past one and a half months, Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said, Trend reports citing Xinhua.
"Our number of cases has been on the rise for a while. We reached the highest number of patients of the last 1.5 months," the minister said in a press conference.
He noted that people, who do not have chronic illnesses, rest in isolation, and apply the treatment at home. The healthcare teams contact these people on the first, third, seventh, and fourteenth days after they are diagnosed, Koca added.
Turkey confirmed 1,303 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, raising the total diagnosed cases to 253,108, the minister tweeted.
Meanwhile, 23 people died in the past 24 hours, taking the death toll to 6,039, Koca said.
Turkish health professionals conducted 87,223 tests in the past 24 hours, bringing the overall number of tests to 5,969,629, he said.
A total of 1,002 patients recovered in the last 24 hours, raising the total recoveries to 233,915 in Turkey since the outbreak, Koca noted.
The rate of pneumonia in COVID-19 patients is 7.4 percent and the number of seriously ill patients is 719, he stated.
Turkey reported the first COVID-19 case on March 11.
Turkey and China have supported each other in the fight against COVID-19.
Chinese doctors and medical experts held video conferences with Turkish counterparts to share China's experience in treating coronavirus patients, protecting medical workers, and controlling the spread of the virus.