Turkey reports record 49,500+ new coronavirus cases

ANKARA

Turkey on Tuesday reported nearly 50,000 new coronavirus cases, the Health Ministry said, the highest single-day spike in the country since the beginning of the outbreak.

A total of 49,584 cases, including 2,003 symptomatic patients, were confirmed across the country, the data showed.

Turkey's overall case tally is over 3.5 million, while the nationwide death toll has reached 32,667, with 211 fatalities over the past day.

As many as 28,498 more patients in the country won the battle against the virus, bringing the total number of recoveries to over 3.1 million.

More than 40 million coronavirus tests have been done in Turkey to date, with 271,547 done since Monday.

The latest figures show that the number of COVID-19 patients in critical condition rose to 2,407.

Since its vaccination campaign began on Jan. 14, Turkey has so far administered over 17.6 million coronavirus vaccine jabs nationwide, according to official figures.

Over 10.3 million people to date have received their first doses of a vaccine against coronavirus, while second vaccine doses were given to nearly 7.33 million.

In the face of rising case and fatality numbers, Turkey recently announced the return of weekend curfews in high-risk areas, as well as other restrictions, in addition to special measures for the upcoming Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Since December 2019, the pandemic has claimed over 2.86 million lives in 191 countries and regions.

Nearly 132 million cases have been reported worldwide, with recoveries at almost 75 million, according to figures compiled by the US' Johns Hopkins University.