Turkey's daily COVID-19 deaths hit new record as total infections surpass 1.95 mln

People's Daily Online

(Xinhua) 11:12, December 18, 2020

ANKARA, Dec. 17 (Xinhua) -- Turkey reported on Thursday a record high of 243 daily deaths from the COVID-19, as its total number of infections exceeded 1.95 million.

The Turkish Health Ministry announced 27,515 new COVID-19 cases, including 4,209 symptomatic patients, as the total cases in the country hit 1,955,680.

The death toll rose by 243 to 17,364, while the total recoveries climbed to 1,721,607 after 30,494 more cases recovered in the last 24 hours, the ministry said.

Turkey has become the worst-hit country by the pandemic so far. The rate of pneumonia in Turkish COVID-19 patients stood at 2.9 percent, while 5,803 patients were seriously ill from the infection, said the ministry.

A total of 206,102 COVID-19 tests were conducted over the past day, taking the overall tests in Turkey to 21,901,694.

Turkey reported its first COVID-19 case on March 11.