Turkey denies receiving coronavirus test kits from Iran

ANKARA

Turkish diplomatic sources on Monday refuted a claim by Iran’s foreign minister that his country had sent 40,000 domestically produced coronavirus test kits to Turkey.

"The Parsis of India—Zoroastrians whose ancestors long ago emigrated to India—have remained ever faithful in their love for Iran. Grateful for their #Covid19 package for Iranians. We also sent 40,000 advanced Iran-made test kits to #Germany, #Turkey and others," Javad Zarif said Friday on Twitter.

The sources, however, said that no test kits have arrived in Turkey from Iran.

They stressed that the information in question is not correct.

The number of active coronavirus cases in Turkey has dropped to 40,150, the country’s health minister said Monday.

A total of 3,089 coronavirus patients have recovered over the last 24 hours, bringing the number of recoveries to 95,780, Fahrettin Koca said on Twitter.

The death toll from the pandemic rose to 3,841 as the country saw 55 more fatalities over the past day, Koca added.

The country registered 1,114 new cases, bringing the tally to 139,771, he said, citing Health Ministry data.

More than 4.15 million cases have been reported in 187 countries and regions since the virus emerged in Wuhan, China last December. The US and Europe are currently the hardest-hit areas.

A significant number of COVID-19 patients -- over 1.43 million -- have recovered worldwide, but the disease has claimed over 284,800 lives, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University of the US.