Number of virus recoveries nears 160,000 mark: Turkey

Turkey confirmed Saturday 1,312 daily recoveries from the novel coronavirus, bringing the total to over 158,800, according to the country's health minister.

The number of people beating the disease reached 158,828, while 781 patients remain in intensive care, Fahrettin Koca said on Twitter, citing the Health Ministry data.

"The number of recovered cases tops the number of new cases today too," Koca said.

The country's death toll from the pandemic rose to 4,927, as it reported 22 new fatalities over the past 24 hours.

Health care professionals conducted 41,112 tests for the disease in the past day, raising the total count to over 2.9 million.

According to test results, the total number of COVID-19 cases nationwide reached 186,493, with nearly 1,248 new infections.

The number of the active cases stands at 22,738.

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 461,000 people worldwide, with more than 8.7 million confirmed cases and over 4.28 million recoveries, according to figures compiled by the US' Johns Hopkins University.