Burak Bir and Havva Kara Aydin
20 August 2020•Update: 21 August 2020
ANKARA
Turkey has now carried out over six million coronavirus tests since the outbreak began in March, the country’s health minister announced Thursday.
A total of 882 more people won their battle against COVID-19 over the past 24 hours, bringing the tally of recoveries to 234,797, Fahrettin Koca said on Twitter, citing Health Ministry data.
Koca said that daily infections crossed 1,400 on Thursday which was 1,245 on average in last seven days.
Turkey reported 19 new COVID-19 fatalities, bringing the total death toll to 6,058, the data showed.
The country's health care workers ran 92,301 tests to detect the virus in the past 24 hours, raising the total count to over 6 million.
According to test results, the total number of coronavirus cases nationwide has reached 254,520 to date, with new 1,412 infections reported.
The tally of seriously ill people across the country stands at 735.
Koca often reiterates the importance of maintaining social distance, wearing masks, and washing hands
Since first appearing in China last December, the novel coronavirus has spread to at least 188 countries and regions.
The US, Brazil, India, and Russia are currently the countries hardest hit in the world.
The pandemic has killed nearly 790,000 people worldwide, with over 22.49 million confirmed cases and over 14.37 million recoveries, according to figures compiled by the US’ Johns Hopkins University.
