Turkey registers 22,388 new COVID-19 cases

By Agencies Published: May 07, 2021 09:18 AM

A COVID-19 patient is treated at an ICU of a hospital in Ankara, Turkey, on May 6, 2021. Turkey on Thursday confirmed 22,388 new COVID-19 cases, including 2,401 symptomatic patients, raising the total number of cases in the country to 4,977,982.Photo:Xinhua

Turkey on Thursday confirmed 22,388 new COVID-19 cases, including 2,401 symptomatic patients, raising the total number of cases in the country to 4,977,982.

The death toll from the virus in Turkey rose by 304 to 42,187, while the total recoveries climbed to 4,626,799 after 37,298 more people recovered in the last 24 hours, according to the Turkish Health Ministry.

A total of 253,382 tests were conducted over the past day, with the overall number of tests in Turkey reaching 48,712,606.

The daily cases have declined in the past 15 days after the government imposed tight restrictions to curb the spread of COVID-19, Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said late Wednesday.

Turkey has declared a "full lockdown" from April 29 to May 17. The total daily cases in the country peaked above 63,000 on April 16 before the new measures were taken.

Turkey started a mass COVID-19 vaccination on Jan. 14 after the authorities approved the emergency use of the China-made Sinovac vaccine. More than 14,419,000 people have been vaccinated so far.

Turkey reported its first COVID-19 case on March 11, 2020.