Lowest daily COVID-19 cases in Turkey’s largest cities in past week

Turkey's largest cities Istanbul and Ankara saw Friday the lowest number of coronavirus cases in the past week, the health minister announced.

Without revealing the numbers for the cities, Fahrettin Koca said the tally of coronavirus cases in Turkey hit 185,245 with 1,214 new infections in the last 24 hours.

According to the Health Ministry data Koca cited on Twitter, the recoveries from the disease rose to 157,516, while 769 patients remain in intensive care.

The country's death toll from the virus rose to 4,905, as it reported 23 more fatalities in the past 24 hours.

Health care professionals conducted 41,316 tests to detect the disease in the past day, raising the total count of tests to over 2.86 million.

Since first appearing in China last December, the novel coronavirus has spread to at least 188 countries and regions.

The US, Brazil and Russia are currently the hardest hit in the world.

The pandemic has killed over 456,700 people worldwide, with more than 8.54 million confirmed cases and over 4.19 million recoveries, according to figures compiled by the US' Johns Hopkins University.