Turkey's coronavirus tests near 4.5M mark

Total of 1,009 patients overcome disease over past 24 hours, says Turkey's health minister
Turkey's coronavirus tests near 4.5M mark

Turkey has conducted nearly 4.5 million tests to detect the novel coronavirus so far, the country's health minister announced Friday.

The overall count of COVID-19 tests in Turkey rose to 4,489,360 million, with 42,986 new tests conducted over the past 24 hours.

As many as 1,009 people recovered from the disease over the past 24 hours, Fahrettin Koca said on Twitter.

The country registered 937 new COVID-19 cases over the past day, bringing the tally to 224,252, he added.

Citing Health Ministry data, Koca said overall recoveries had now climbed to 207,374.

The country's death toll from pandemic rose to 5,580, with 17 new fatalities reported since Thursday.

Health Ministry data also showed that a total of 1,248 people remain in intensive care units across the country.

Since it originated in China last December, over 15.56 million COVID-19 cases have been reported worldwide so far, with recoveries topping 8.89 million, according to figures compiled by the US' Johns Hopkins University.

The global death toll currently stands at over 634,500.