Dilara Hamit and Havva Kara Aydin
March 18, 2021•Update: March 19, 2021
ANKARA
Turkey on Thursday reported more than 20,000 new coronavirus cases, according to Health Ministry data.
A total of 20,049 cases, including 902 symptomatic patients, were confirmed across the country, the data showed.
Turkey's overall case tally is over 2.95 million, while the nationwide death toll has reached 29,777 with 81 fatalities over the past day.
As many as 18,615 more patients in the country won the battle against the virus, bringing the total number of recoveries to over 2.77 million.
More than 35.78 million coronavirus tests have been done in Turkey to date, with 184,452 done since Wednesday.
The latest figures show that the number of COVID-19 patients in critical condition rose to 1,503.
Since Turkey began a mass COVID-vaccination campaign on Jan. 14, it has administered over 12.69 million coronavirus vaccine jabs, according to official figures.
Over 8 million people to date have received their first doses of a vaccine against coronavirus, while second doses were given to nearly 4.69 million.
On March 1, Turkey started easing weekend curfews while continuing weeknight curfews to stem the virus’ spread. The country allows more face-to-face education and restaurant dining, based on local risk assessment.
Since December 2019, the pandemic has claimed over 2.68 million lives in 191 countries and regions.
Over 121.47 million cases have been reported worldwide, with recoveries now numbering over 68.84 million, according to figures compiled by the US' Johns Hopkins University.
