ANKARA, June 13 (NNN-XINHUA) – Turkish health minister, Friday, reported an increase in COVID-19 patients in intensive care units, warning against “false optimism” for the outbreak.
“The rise in the number of intensive care and intubated patients is on the limit of our expectation. The spread of the virus is due to false optimism. Let’s follow the mask, distance, and hygiene rules,” Health Minister, Fahrettin Koca, tweeted.
The minister said, Turkey’s total COVID-19 cases surged to 175,218, with 1,195 new patients in the past 24 hours. The daily increase in the country was below 1,000 in the past week.
In a single day, 15 people died, taking the death toll to 4,778, the minister noted.
Koca said that a total of 149,102 patients have recovered, since the outbreak, with some 1,242 cases recovered in the last 24 hours. He noted, 664 patients are under treatment at the intensive care units and 282 intubated.
Turkey reported the first COVID-19 case in the country on Mar 11 and has stepped up for normalisation, easing the restrictions since June 1.– NNN-XINHUA
