Turkey reports over 1,500 more coronavirus cases

Turkey reported 1,509 more coronavirus cases and 1,207 recoveries on Saturday.

The country's overall infection count now stands at 289,635, including 257,731 recoveries, according to the Health Ministry's data.

The COVID-19 death toll in Turkey increased by 48 over the past day to reach 6,999.

A total of 98,326 more coronavirus tests were conducted over the past 24 hours, pushing the total up to over 8.42 million.

The number of patients in critical condition now stands at 1,241, the data showed.

"The number of critical patients continues to rise. The power to beat the virus lies in our ability to fight it together," Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said in a tweet.

Across the world, COVID-19 has claimed over 916,700 lives in 188 countries and regions since last December.

The US, India, Brazil, and Russia are currently the worst-hit countries.

Over 28.55 million cases have been reported worldwide, with recoveries exceeding 19.25 million, according to figures compiled by the US' Johns Hopkins University.