Turkey's Coronavirus Death Toll Hits 2,992 with 114,653 Cases

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The Health Ministry has confirmed 92 more fatalities from coronavirus over the past 24 hours, bringing the total death toll to 2,992.

The total number of registered coronavirus cases rose to 114,653, as 2,392 more people tested positive for the virus.

Turkey saw the highest number of former coronavirus patients discharged in a single day, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on Twitter.

A total of 5,018 patients were discharged from medical care after recovering from the virus in the last 24 hours alone, making a total of 38,809 patients discharged, he noted.

"Over 5,000 patients have been recovered in the past 24 hours. Total number of recoveries neared 40,000," he said.

The number of patients in intensive care and intubated patients continued to drop. The number of new cases is as predicted, according to Koca.

CLICK - All Updates on Turkey's Coronavirus Tally

He also underlined the success of the high number of tests given, saying, "We will soon top 1 million tests total. Let's not endanger this success."

A total of 29,230 tests for the virus were conducted over the past 24 hours, with the total reaching 948,115, according to the data.

Tuesday's numbers also show that for the fourth straight day, Turkey saw more Covid-19 recoveries than new cases.

33,000 people have been released from quarantine

More than 33,000 patients in Turkey have been released after spending two weeks in quarantine at student dormitories, the Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) has said.

The agency said 62,854 patients were quarantined, most brought home from abroad, in all but four of Turkey's 81 provinces.

It said 33,708 have completed the 14-day quarantine period and were released after negative test results for COVID-19.

Erdoğan: We should make sacrifices

President and Justice and Development Party (AKP) Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said that Turkey is supporting the real sector and lower-income groups in the face of coronavirus with a 200 billion Turkish lira (28.5 billion US dollars) Economic Stability Shield package.

Stressing Turkey's fight against the outbreak, Erdoğan told members of his party. "Production in our country will rise rapidly as before when we gradually lift the outbreak measures according to a schedule we have set."

"If we don't make sacrifices in this process, if we don't leave the pandemic behind with other countries simultaneously, we know we will experience much more serious losses," warned Erdogan.

But changes in the world could bring Turkey huge new opportunities, he said, adding that if they are patient, the Turkish public will see better days.

After originating in China last December, COVID-19, the disease caused by coronavirus, has spread to at least 185 countries and regions across the world. Europe and the US are currently the worst-hit regions.

The pandemic has killed more than 212,000 people, with total infections exceeding 3.06 million, while nearly 906,000 have recovered from the disease, according to figures compiled by the US' Johns Hopkins University. (EKN/TP/VK)