Number of recovered COVID-19 patients in Turkey nears 180,000 mark - health ministry

Turkey on Friday reported 1,172 new coronavirus cases as infections seem to be ebbing, according to the country's health minister.

"The number of new cases decreased to 1,172 from 1,492 on June 24," Fahrettin Koca said on Twitter.

The nationwide case-count has reached 203,450.

A total of 1,313 COVID-19 patients recovered in Turkey over the past 24 hours, bringing the overall number to 178,278, the Health Ministry data showed.

"Average age of in-patients at hospitals in the last one week is 46.7," said Koca, adding that 11.13% of new cases are among those aged above 65.

This group also constitutes over 70% of the deceased from COVID-19, he said.

The country's death toll from the virus reached 5,186, with 19 new fatalities reported over the last 24 hours.

Healthcare professionals conducted over 52,140 tests for the virus in the past day, raising the total count to over 3.53 million.

Friday's figures took the number of active cases in the country to 19,992.

The pandemic has so far claimed nearly 522,000 lives in 188 countries and regions since it originated in China last December.

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

More than 10.93 million COVID-19 cases have been reported around the world, with recoveries exceeding 5.79 million, according to figures compiled by the US' Johns Hopkins University.