Turkey reports highest daily Covid-19 fatalities, official death toll tops 12,000

Photo: AA

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The Health Ministry has reported 141 deaths of Covid-19 for the past 24 hours, bringing the country's official death toll to 12,084.

This was the highest number of daily fatalities announced by the ministry since Turkey's first coronavirus case was confirmed on March 11.

The official figures for deaths and cases have been disputed by medical organizations and local authorities.

İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu on November 14 said that the city recorded 164 deaths caused by an "infectious disease" while the ministry reported 92 Covid-19 deaths for the entire country on the same day.

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The ministry also reported 5,103 new Covid-19 "patients" as the country's overall tally now stands at 435,273.

As Minister Fahrettin Koca admitted late September, the ministry does not announce the number of all cases but only the number of what it calls "patients," or cases with symptoms.

The Turkish Medical Association (TTB) stated today (November 20) that it estimated the number of daily cases at about 47,000 with more than 12,000 cases in İstanbul, the country's largest and the most affected city by the pandemic.

Table: Health Ministry

A total of 3,019 more patients recovered over the past day, bringing the tally to 367,592, according to the ministry figures.

Almost 157,000 Covid-19 tests were conducted across the country, bringing the total to over 16.94 million.

The figures showed that the number of patients in critical condition currently stands at 3,990 with 3.8 percent this week suffering from pneumonia.

Highlighting that the government had to enforce new measures to stem the spread of the virus, Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on Twitter: "The fight [against the virus] would be easier if we follow the measures together and put our own restrictions on ourselves."

Figures announced by the Health Ministry since the start of the outbreak:

(EKN/VK)