Turkey reported 11,770 COVID-19 cases and 64 people lost their lives as a result of the virus in the past 24 hours, while the health minister announced COVID-19 infection rates on a regional basis between February March 27 and 5 as part of its new weekly campaign on Saturday.
“High risk areas should be more careful to reduce the risk. Normalization should be carried out in a controlled manner, ”Fahrettin Koca said on Twitter, sharing the statistics.
The number of cases per 100,000 people is around 112 in the Istanbul metropolis, 55 in the capital Ankara, and 66 in the western Izmir region.
According to the data, the Black Sea area of Turkey of Samsun has the highest number of cases with 348 cases per 100,000 people.
The southeastern regions of Şırnak, Batman, Mardin, Siirt, and Hakkari have the lowest numbers of COVID-19 infections per 100,000 people.
President Diyanet Erbaş tests positive for COVID-19
Meanwhile, the President of the Turkish Religious Affairs Directorate (Diyanet), Ali Erbaş, tested positive for the coronavirus, he said in a statement Saturday.
In a message he posted on Twitter, Erbaş said that he is currently feeling well and is resting, as he said he hopes to get through the virus in an easy way.
Erbaş also thanked everyone for the best wishes.
As of Friday, Turkey confirmed more than 2.75 million cases, 28,901 deaths, and more than 2.6 million recover.
Turkey launched a major COVID-19 vaccination campaign on January 14 starting with health care workers along with top officials to boost public confidence in the vaccines.
Since early December, Turkey has also implemented invitations on evenings and weekends to prevent the spread of the virus.
The pandemic has claimed more than 2.58 million lives in 192 countries and regions since its outbreak in China in December 2019.
More than 116.19 million cases have been reported worldwide, with deliveries now exceeding 65.7 million, according to figures compiled by U.S. Johns Hopkins University.
The USA, India and Brazil are still the worst performing countries.