Turkey's coronavirus tests pass 4.5M mark

ANKARA

Turkey has conducted over 4.53 million tests so far to diagnose COVID-19 infections, the country's health minister said on Saturday.

The overall count of COVID-19 tests in Turkey rose to 4,532,672 million, with 43,312 new tests run over the past 24 hours.

As many as 1,103 people recovered from the disease in the last 24 hours, Fahrettin Koca said on Twitter.

The country registered 921 new COVID-19 cases over the past day, bringing the tally to 225,173, he added.

Citing Health Ministry data, Koca said overall recoveries climbed to 208,477.

The country's death toll from pandemic rose to 5,596, with 16 new fatalities reported since Friday.

The government data also showed that a total of 1,252 people are currently receiving treatment in intensive care units across the country.

Since originating in China last December, the novel coronavirus infected over 15.8 million people worldwide so far, with recoveries topping 9.13 million, according to figures compiled by the US' Johns Hopkins University.

The global death toll currently stands around 641,000.