Jeyhun Aliyev, Ali Murat Alhas and Dilan Pamuk
13 January 2021•Update: 14 January 2021
ANKARA
Turkey reported 9,554 new coronavirus infections on Wednesday.
Among the fresh cases, 971 symptomatic patients were confirmed across the country, according to Health Ministry data.
Turkey's overall case tally topped 2.35 million. The nationwide death toll hit 23,325 with 173 new fatalities recorded over the past day.
A further 9,463 patients recovered in the country, raising the total above 2.22 million.
More than 26.7 million COVID-19 tests have been carried out in Turkey to date, with 173,603 done over the past 24 hours.
The latest figures show that the number of COVID-19 patients in critical condition has dropped to 2,652.
"We will start administering vaccines while we continue to comply with restrictions and precautions. We will overcome the pandemic together," Koca said on Twitter.
Turkey has been implementing curfews on both weeknights and weekends since last month as part of efforts to curb the spread of the virus.
On Monday, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that restrictions will be eased gradually as COVID-19 cases have been significantly decreasing recently.
Since December 2019, the COVID-19 pandemic has claimed more than 1.96 million lives in 191 countries and regions.
Over 91.8 million cases have been reported worldwide, with recoveries now over 50.7 million, according to figures compiled by the US' Johns Hopkins University.
The US, India, and Brazil remain the worst-hit countries in terms of cases.
