Turkey reports over 15,000 new COVID-19 infections

ANKARA

Turkey on Monday reported 15,197 more coronavirus infections, including 2,816 symptomatic patients, over the past 24 hours, according to the Health Ministry.

The overall caseload exceeded 2.16 million with the latest additions.

As many as 22,203 patients also recovered, bringing the tally to over 2.03 million, while the death toll rose to 20,135 with 257 additions.

A total of 180,892 new COVID-19 tests were conducted across the country, pushing the total to over 23.95 million.

The number of patients in critical condition now stands at 4,251.

"The number of active cases continues to drop. Full compliance with measures and restrictions is essential to sustain the gains we have achieved and to combat the pandemic. We will tackle it together," Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on Twitter.

He said on Sunday that the first batch of 3 million doses of the Chinese SinoVac vaccine, which was expected to arrive in Turkey on Dec. 28, had been delayed. The snag was caused by an emergency in Beijing customs due to the discovery of a COVID-19 case there.

Turkey has also signed a deal with Pfizer-BioNTech to procure up to 30 million doses of their vaccine.

Several countries, including those in the EU, have begun immunization drives to help pave the way toward the end of the pandemic.