Turkey’s confirmed cases of the coronavirus increased by 4,674 in the past 24 hours, and 123 more people have died, taking the death toll to 2,140, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on April 20.
Turkey’s total confirmed cases stood at 90,980, according to the graphic Koca shared on Twitter.
Some 1,454 patients recovered in the last 24 hours, Koca added.
The total number of recovered cases stood at 13,430 as of April 20.
Koca also said 39,703 tests were conducted over the past day, with the overall number of tests reaching 673,980.
Turkey is currently treating 1,909 patients in intensive care units, along with 1,033 intubated patients, Koca added.
Coronavirus spread rate down by one third
The rate of infection by the novel coronavirus in Turkey has fallen by over a third from %15 to %9 in the past week, despite rising test numbers, with recoveries surging by more than three-fold.
As a result of 598,933 tests conducted since March 10- the beginning of the outbreak in Turkey – 82,329 patients were diagnosed with COVID-19.
The death rate from the virus since the first fatality on March 17 until April 18 was 2.29%. When multiple patients died for the first time on March 19, the ratio of deaths to cases was 1.2%. The rate had increased to 1.7% by the end of March, with 2,704 cases and 46 fatalities.
On April 11, when the highest number of daily cases were detected, this rate was recorded as %1.85.
Increasing test numbers
Healthcare professionals are testing more people for COVID-19 by the day to identify and isolate positive cases. At the beginning of the outbreak, tests were only conducted on those who came from abroad or who had been in
contact with such individuals.
Later, with the decision of Turkey’s Coronavirus Scientific Advisory Board, health staff also began testing people who showed symptoms of the coronavirus. At the current stage, coronavirus tests are conducted for any who had been contacted with a confirmed case.
Testings for the coronavirus are offered free of charge in hospitals affiliated to the Health Ministry, as well as hospitals, universities and laboratories the ministry authorizes. As of March 19, when testing data was first disclosed, 1,981 people had undergone diagnostic tests.
By the next day, this had increased to 3,656, reaching 9,882 in 10 days and 15,442 by the end of March. By
April 18, the number of daily tests conducted had reached a record 40,520. In total, 598,933 tests had been conducted by April 18.
Case increase rate falls by %6
In Turkey, COVID-19 has been detected in 13.74% of people tested. In addition, despite the increase in the number of tests over the last week, the number of cases has decreased.
On April 11, when the number of tests was 33,170, authorities had reported that 5,138 people tested positive, on April 18, when 40,520 tests were performed, this figure dropped to 3,783.
According to the total number of tests, this rate, which was %15.4 on April 11, dropped to %9.3 on April 17.
The falling incidence rate is seen as an indication that the virus under control and that people were complying with the measures against the pandemic.
