Pneumonia rate among Turkey's COVID-19 patients 9.4% - health minister

A total of 542 novel coronavirus patients in Turkey are "seriously ill," with the pneumonia rate among all patients at 9.4%, the country's health minister said Wednesday.

The total number of fatalities in the country caused by the disease rose to 5,659 with the latest daily addition of 14, Fahrettin Koca said on Twitter.

Turkey confirmed 996 more recoveries from the novel coronavirus, bringing the tally to 212,557.

Citing Health Ministry data, Koca said that a total of 942 people contracted COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of infections to 228,924.

Healthcare professionals conducted a total of 45,712 tests, raising the tally to over 4.71 million.

As of Wednesday, Turkey began to share the number of seriously ill patients and the pneumonia rate among COVID-19 patients, following international standard practices.

The coronavirus pandemic has claimed over 661,900 lives in 188 countries and regions since it originated in China last December. The US, Brazil, India, and Russia are currently the worst-hit countries in the world.

Nearly 16.8 million COVID-19 cases have been reported worldwide, with recoveries exceeding 9.8 million, according to figures compiled by the US' Johns Hopkins University.