Turkey's number of recovered COVID-19 patients rises

Turkey on Friday reported 1,442 new coronavirus patients and 1,506 recoveries in the last 24 hours.

Overall infections now stand at 321,512, including 282,657 recoveries.

Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on Twitter the rate of patients with pneumonia dropped, adding that the number of recoveries today is higher than the number of new patients.

Koca also urged the nation for unity in fighting the disease.

The death toll from the pandemic in Turkey rose to 8,325, with 63 more fatalities reported since Thursday.

A total of 114,857 more coronavirus tests were conducted over the past 24 hours, pushing the total above 10.6 million.

The number of patients in critical condition now stands at 1,455, the data showed.

Of those infected, 6.4% suffer from pneumonia, according to the figures.

Across the world, COVID-19 has claimed over 1.02 million lives in 188 countries and regions since last December.

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

More than 34.41 million cases have been reported worldwide, with recoveries exceeding 23.9 million, according to figures compiled by the US-based Johns Hopkins University.