ANKARA
The COVID-19 recovery rate in Turkey has reached 71.8%, the country's health minister announced on Thursday.
"The tally of coronavirus tests tops 1.5 million. Intensive care and intubated patient numbers continue to drop," Fahrettin Koca said on Twitter, adding that the total number of recoveries from the disease had reached 104,030.
The death toll from the pandemic rose to 4,007 as the country saw 55 more fatalities over the past day, Koca added. 
Turkey also registered 1,635 new cases, bringing the tally to 144,749, he said, citing Health Ministry data.
As many as 34,821 tests were conducted in the country over the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of tests to over 1,508,824, said Koca.
There are currently 963 patients in Turkey's intensive care units.
The health minister also reiterated the importance of wearing masks and keeping a social distance of 1.5 meters (around 5 feet).
Nearly 4.4 million cases have been reported in 188 countries since the virus emerged in China last December. The US and Europe are currently the hardest-hit areas.
A significant number of COVID-19 patients -- over 1.57 million -- have recovered worldwide, but the disease has claimed almost 300,000 lives, according to data compiled by the US' Johns Hopkins University.
