Turkey reports highest daily Covid cases, İstanbul announces 232 deaths

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The Health Ministry has registered 32,381 more coronavirus infections, including 6,511 symptomatic cases, for the past 24 hours.

The new symptomatic cases raised the overall patient count to 520,167.

The country's death toll rose by 187 to 14,316, according to the ministry, while the İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality reported 232 deaths of an"infectious disease" for the city alone.

Amid growing suspicion of the accuracy of the official figures, the municipality has been publishing the number of deaths caused by an infectious disease since November 22.

• Figures registered by the Health Ministry and the İstanbul Municipality

The number of daily cases in Turkey has been among the world's top five since the Ministry of Health started including asymptomatic cases in its daily count on November 25.

CLICK - 'Turkey still underreporting Covid-19 cases despite change in reporting'

As many as 4,190 patients recovered over the past day, bringing the tally to 418,331, while the death toll rose to 14,316, with 187 additions.

More than 187,518  tests were conducted across the country, pushing the total to over 19.14 million.

The number of patients in critical condition now stands at 5,611.

"Closed and crowded areas are the environments where the virus is most easily transmitted. We should spend the winter months avoiding crowded and closed areas," Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on Twitter, urging the public to follow COVID-19 measures and to stay at home.

• All figures announced by the ministry since the start of the outbreak

(EKN/VK)