Turkey on Wednesday reported more daily recoveries from COVID-19 than new infections for the first time in months.
At least 29,922 patients recuperated from the disease over the past day, while the number of new cases totaled 29,718, including 4,893 symptomatic patients, according to Health Ministry data.
The total count of cases since the beginning of the pandemic rose to over 1.92 million while the tally of recoveries hit 1.69 million.
The nationwide death toll rose to 17,121 with 240 additions.
A total of 205,397 coronavirus tests were conducted across the country in the last 24 hours, pushing the total to almost 21.7 million.
The number of seriously ill patients now stands at 5,960.
Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on Twitter that Turkey’s daily number of patients has been on the fall for a while.
“Today, for the first time after a long period, the number of daily recoveries has exceeded the number of daily cases,” Koca added.
He highlighted that the number of active patients has also dropped after a long time.
The government this month re-imposed weekend lockdowns as well as nighttime curfews amid a spike in infections and deaths.
It has avoided a full lockdown since the beginning of the pandemic to keep the country's economy running.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Monday announced that a four-day curfew will be implemented from the evening of Dec. 31 and go until the morning of Jan. 4 over the upcoming New Year's weekend.
The president also announced some rental support for businesses and promised to continue discounts for value-added taxes.
Since it emerged last December, the COVID-19 pandemic has claimed over 1.63 million lives in 191 countries and regions.
More than 73.61 million cases have been reported worldwide, with over 41 million recoveries, according to figures compiled by the U.S.’ Johns Hopkins University.
While the U.S., India, and Brazil remain the worst-hit countries in terms of the number of cases, Europe is in the grip of a devastating second wave of infections.
