Health minister, 'Turkey witnessing 2nd peak of 1st wave of virus'

Turkey is going through the second peak of the first wave of the novel coronavirus, the country's health minister said on Wednesday.

Speaking at a news conference, Fahrettin Koca said a total of 29,865 health workers have so far contracted the virus and 52 of them lost their lives.

As many as 1,596 more virus cases were reported in the country over the past 24 hours, bringing the overall count to 273,301.

Koca also said 947 more patients recovered over the past day, raising the total number of recoveries to 246,876.

The death toll rose to 6,462 after 45 new fatalities, he added.

A total of 107,927 more COVID-19 tests were done over the past 24 hours, pushing the total up to over 7.35 million.

The health minister said the capital Ankara has the highest number of confirmed cases in Turkey. The total number of cases in the city is two times more than the number of cases in Istanbul, he added.

Koca said no one in the country has caught the virus twice, but it does not mean it will never happen.

Across the world, COVID-19 has claimed 858,661 lives in 188 countries and regions since last December. The US, Brazil, India, and Russia are currently the worst-hit countries.

Over 25.83 million COVID-19 cases have been reported worldwide, with recoveries exceeding 17.12 million, according to figures compiled by the US' Johns Hopkins University.