Turkey on Thursday recorded 19 daily COVID-19 deaths and 1,243 new infections, raising the country’s number of total coronavirus cases to 245,635, according to the Health Minister Fahrettin Koca.

"The rise in the number of patients has started to be constant," Koca said on Twitter, stating that the number of patients in critical condition has risen by 15 compared to the previous day, which is considered an important indicator of the outbreak.

Koca reported that 968 people have recovered from COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, taking the total number of recoveries to 228,057.

As of Thursday, Turkey's death toll from the coronavirus stood at 5,912.

Health care professionals conducted 66,892 tests to diagnose the disease over the past day, taking the tally to over 5.52 million.

The coronavirus pandemic has claimed over 737,500 lives in 188 countries and regions since it originated in China last December.

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

More than 20.13 million COVID-19 cases have been reported worldwide, with recoveries exceeding 12.38 million, according to figures compiled by the U.S.-based Johns Hopkins University.