Turkey reports record high Covid deaths with 32,109 new cases

The country's total cases have neared 1.9 million with today's update.

İstanbul

Photo: AA

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The Health Ministry has reported 32,102 more coronavirus infections, including 5,105 symptomatic patients, for the past 24 hours.

The total number of cases topped 1,89 million with latest additions, the data showed.

As many as 29,247 patients recovered over the past day, bringing the tally to more than 1,6 million, while the death toll rose to 16,881 with 235 additions.

Across the country, 206,190 COVID-19 tests were carried out, pushing the total to over 21.49 million.

The number of patients in critical condition now stands at 5,988, though the rate of increase in severe cases is declining.

Turkey's reporting of coronavirus figures

As the official figures have been questioned by medical organizations and opposition parties since the start of the outbreak in Turkey, the Health Ministry admitted at the end of September that it was excluding asymptomatic cases from its daily count.

On November 25, the ministry started announcing both symptomatic cases, which it refers to as "patients," and all cases.

On December 10, the ministry updated the total number of cases to 1.78 million.

The accuracy of the fatality figures has also been disputed as the Turkish Medical Association (TTB) suggested as early as April that the ministry was not excluding the deaths of people who received Covid-19 treatment but died without a positive PCR test from its death toll.

A document published on the World Health Organization's (WHO) in April said that "Turkey uses a national definition of Covid-19 without referring to WHO or ECDC definitions."

The İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality in late November started to announce the number of deaths caused by an "infectious disease" in the city. Since then, İstanbul's death figures have been similar to the ministry's toll for the entire country.

Health Minister Fahrettin Koca admitted on December 9 that only the deaths with a positive PCR test were included in the country's official mortality figures.