Turkey Reports More Covid-19 Recoveries than New Cases For the First Time

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The Health Ministry has confirmed 109 additional fatalities related to the novel coronavirus over the past 24 hours, bringing the total death toll to 2,600.

For the first time during the pandemic, Turkey reported more recoveries than new cases. While 3,122 new cases were found in a day, 3,246 people were discharged from medical care.

The total number of registered coronavirus cases surged to 104,912, and 21,737 patients have been discharged from medical care after recovering from the virus, the ministry data showed.

On the other hand, doctors and critics cast doubt on the ministry figures, saying the death cause of people who received coronavirus treatment but died without a positive test is not reported as Covid-19.

The Turkish Medical Association (TTB) says the Health Ministry does not use the codes suggested by WHO, hence the official death toll is lower than actual numbers.

The last example was a doctor, whose cause of death was recorded as "viral pneumonia" although his computed tomography images had shown the signs of coronavirus and he had received Covid-19 treatment.

CLICK - Doctor's Cause of Death Recorded as 'Pneumonia' Despite Getting Covid-19 Treatment

To decide whether a patient has Covid-19, doctors rely more on computed tomography images and clinical findings than PCR tests due to their high error margin.

The total number of tests in the country reached 830,257 with 38,351 cases in a day. The test numbers do not reflect the number of people as some patients are tested more than once during the course of the treatment.

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 193,000 people, with total infections exceeding 2.74 million, while more than 752,800 have recovered from the disease, according to figures compiled by the US-based Johns Hopkins University. (EKN/VK)