Turkey recorded 7,909 new coronavirus cases and 113 daily deaths due to COVID-19 over the past 24 hours, Health Ministry data showed on Thursday.
According to the Health Ministry, 145,000 coronavirus tests were carried out over the past day.
With Thursday’s figures, the total number of COVID-19 cases in Turkey since the outbreak first began increased to 2,508,988 and the death toll reached 26,467.
The ministry data also showed that 8,815 people were declared recovered, increasing the total number of recoveries to 2,396,199.
According to the data, Turkey currently has around 118,000 active cases.
After receiving the first doses of Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinovac’s coronavirus vaccine, Turkey has inoculated more than 2 million people so far.
Following a surge of COVID-19 cases in the fall, Turkey reintroduced weekend curfews and closed schools in late November to curb the rise in daily infections. Following the strict measures, the cases rapidly fell from record highs of around 30,000 to below 6,000.
For the past few days, however, the number of cases in the country has been on a slight upward trend.
“The increase in daily case numbers shows how important for us to act more carefully. We need to stay away from gathering together and creating crowds and reduce mobility. Stay away from crowded and indoor areas,” Health Minister Fahrettin Koca warned Wednesday.
Ankara also banned flights from several countries that reported mutated strains of the coronavirus to halt the spread of variants within its borders. Koca said the nation has so far recorded 196 cases stemming from multiple variants, while a member of the country’s Coronavirus Scientific Advisory Board warned Thursday that coronavirus variants have spread to 23 provinces across Turkey.
