Turkey's official Covid-19 death toll exceeds 15,000 with record high new fatalities
Table: AA
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The Health Ministry reported 32,137 more coronavirus infections, including 6,420 symptomatic patients, for the past 24 hours.
The country's official death toll rose to 15,103 with 203 new additions, the highest number since the start of the outbreak. Meanwhile, the İstanbul Municipality reported 201 deaths for the city alone.
Amid growing suspicion on the accuracy of the official figures, the municipality has been announcing the number of deaths caused by "infectious diseases" since November 22.
Figures announced by the Health Ministry and the İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality
- In late September, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca admitted that Turkey was not including asymptomatic cases in its daily count.
- On November 25, the ministry announced that it started to announce all cases and has been reporting about 30,000 daily infections since then.
As many as 5,017 patients recovered in the last day, bringing the tally to 436,270, while the death toll rose to 15,103, with 203 additions.
Across the country, 196,902 tests were conducted, pushing the total to over 19.88 million.
The number of patients in critical condition now stands at 5,836, though the rate of increase in severe cases is declining.
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"The protective measures and restrictions implemented in Turkey have slowed down the rise in the number of Covid-19 patients in critical condition across the country," Minister Koca said on Twitter.
"We hope we'll feel [the effect of protective measures] more soon. Our duty is to stay out of the crowd by enforcing our own restrictions," he added.
The government today (December 7) shortened the quarantine requirement for contact with a novel coronavirus case to 10 days from the previous 14.
"People who had close contact stay in quarantine for 10 days. Quarantine of people who do not develop any symptoms during the quarantine period ends at the end of the 10th day without conducting a PCR test, but these people will continue taking the necessary precautions in public spaces," said the Health Ministry statement.
(EKN/VK)