ANKARA
Turkey on Wednesday reported 14,556 more coronavirus cases, including 814 symptomatic patients, according to the Health Ministry.
The country's case tally stands at 2.82 million, while the nationwide death toll reached 29,227, with 67 fatalities over the past day.
As many as 9,193 more patients in the country won the battle against the virus, with the total number of recoveries passing 2.64 million.
More than 34.54 million coronavirus tests have been conducted in Turkey to date, with 145,130 since Tuesday.
The latest figures show that the number of COVID-19 patients in critical condition stands at 1,309.
So far, more than 10.41 million vaccines -- including over 7.77 million first dose and more than 2.63 million second dose jabs -- have been administered across Turkey, according to the official figures.
Variants of coronavirus
Following a Coronavirus Scientific Advisory Committee meeting, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said in a statement: “A total of 41,488 cases of the UK variant of coronavirus in 76 provinces, 61 cases of South African variant in nine provinces, two cases of California-New York variant, and a case of Brazilian variant in a province have been detected so far.”
Koca warned that the new virus strains have started to spread faster.
“Though this does not affect hospitalization in a parallel way, it has the potential of [causing] more cases, more patients,” he said.
The last week’s data showed that people should be more careful about measures not to cause a rise in case numbers, Koca noted.
“We still don’t have any other way to fight these fast-spreading variants than measures and the vaccine,” he said.
On Jan. 14, Turkey began a mass COVID-vaccination campaign, starting with healthcare workers along with top officials to encourage public confidence in the vaccines.
On March 1, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced the easing of coronavirus restrictions based on circumstances in individual provinces.
Since last December, Turkey has been implementing curfew on weeknights.
The pandemic has claimed more than 2.61 million lives in 192 countries and regions since December 2019.
Over 117.81 million cases have been reported worldwide, with recoveries exceeding 66.75 million, according to figures compiled by the US' Johns Hopkins University.
The US, India, and Brazil remain the worst-hit countries in terms of cases.
