Turkey reports over 12,000 new Covid cases, patients in critical care continue to decrease

Photo: AA

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The Health Ministry reported over 12,000 daily infections from the novel coronavirus yesterday (January 7).

The country confirmed 12,171 new cases, including 1,370 symptomatic patients, according to Health Ministry data.

With new additions, the tally of infections topped 2.29 million, the figures showed.

A total of 194 people lost their lives to the virus over the past 24 hours, bringing the death toll to 22,264.

As many as 8,211 more people recovered over the past day, bringing the total to over 2.17 million.

Table: Health Ministry

Since Wednesday, a total of 183,003 Covid-19 tests were done across the country, pushing the overall count to 25.68 million.

The number of patients in critical condition dropped to 3,201, according to the latest figures.

"Our number of patients in critical condition is decreasing day by day. There is a limited increase in the number of active cases," Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on Twitter.

Since last month, the country has been implementing curfews on both weeknights and weekends to stem the virus's spread.

Since it originated in China in December 2019, the Covid-19 pandemic has claimed more than 1.88 million lives in 191 countries and regions.

More than 87.38 million cases have been reported worldwide, with more than 48.89 million recoveries, according to figures compiled by the US' Johns Hopkins University.

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.

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

(EKN/VK)