Faruk Zorlu and Sena Güler
18 December 2020•Update: 19 December 2020
ANKARA
Turkey reported 26,410 more coronavirus infections, including 4,103 symptomatic patients, over the past 24 hours, according to the Health Ministry data released Friday.
The total number of cases exceeded 1.98 million with the latest additions, the data showed.
As many as 31,945 cases recovered in the past day, bringing the tally to over 1.75 million, while the death toll climbed to 17,610 with 246 additional fatalities.
Across the country, more than 205,800 COVID-19 tests were conducted, pushing the total to over 22.10 million.
The number of patients in critical condition now stands at 5,707.
Health Minister Fahrettin Koca in a tweet stressed the decrease in the number of patients in critical condition, as well as active cases.
"We expect to see the impact of measures further starting from this weekend," Koca said.
He added that there was a 20% drop in the patient number in the Turkish metropolis Istanbul during the past week.
The COVID-19 pandemic has claimed over 1.66 million lives in 191 countries and regions since last December.
Nearly 75.18 million cases have been reported worldwide, with more than 42.51 million recoveries, according to figures compiled by the US' Johns Hopkins University.
While the US, India, and Brazil remain the worst-hit countries in terms of the number of cases, Europe is in the grip of a devastating second wave of infections.
