Nearly 5M COVID-19 tests carried out in Turkey

ANKARA

Turkey has carried out almost 5 million COVID-19 tests so far, said the country's health minister on Tuesday.

Citing Health Ministry data, Fahrettin Koca said on Twitter that the country confirmed 994 more recoveries from the novel coronavirus over the last 24 hours, bringing the tally to 218,491.

However, he added there was a spike in new cases compared to Monday.

He said situations where there is close contact among people, such as those during Eid and other holidays, should be prevented as they could raise figures.

A total of 1,083 people contracted COVID-19 over the past day, bringing the total number of cases in the country to 234,934.

The country's death toll from the disease rose to 5,765, with 18 new fatalities over the past 24 hours.

Health care professionals did 46,249 tests for COVID-19 over the past day, raising the tally to over 4.97 million.

The coronavirus pandemic has claimed more than 695,550 lives in 188 countries and regions since it originated in China last December. The US, Brazil, India, and Russia are currently the worst-hit countries in the world.

More than 18.3 million COVID-19 cases have been reported worldwide, with recoveries exceeding 10.9 million, according to figures compiled by the US' Johns Hopkins University.