Coronavirus death toll in Turkey rises to 3

ANKARA

Turkey's health minister confirmed Thursday the third death from the new coronavirus in the country.

Speaking to the lawmakers in the parliament, Fahrettin Koca said that former Land Forces commander Aytac Yalman died of coronavirus on Sunday.

"He tested negative, however, his relatives were also tested and some of them tested positive," Koca said.

"In such kind of case, the test result could be negative at first, but it could be positive later … The number of deaths [from COVID-19] is three," he said.

Born in 1940, Yalman served as the commander of Land Forces between 2000 and 2002.

The new coronavirus emerged in Wuhan, China, last December, and has since spread to at least 159 countries and territories, according to Johns Hopkins University's Coronavirus Research Center in Maryland.

More than 222,000 cases have been confirmed worldwide, with some 9,000 deaths.

In the U.S., the disease has killed 150 people so far, with over 9,400 cases confirmed.

The World Health Organization declared the outbreak pandemic.

COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, is not fatal in all cases and a vast majority of patients do fully recover.