Turkey recorded 7,204 new coronavirus cases and 83 daily deaths due to COVID-19 over the past 24 hours, Health Ministry data showed on Thursday.

According to the Health Ministry, 115,000 coronavirus tests were carried out over the past day.

With Thursday’s figures, the total number of COVID-19 cases in Turkey since the outbreak first began increased to 2,616,600 and the death toll reached 27,821.

The ministry data also showed that 7,217 people were declared recovered, increasing the total number of recoveries to 2,504,050.

According to the data, Turkey currently has around 112,500 active cases.

After receiving the first doses of Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinovac’s coronavirus vaccine in December, Turkey has inoculated more than 5 million people so far.

Following a surge of COVID-19 cases in the fall, Turkey reintroduced weekend curfews and closed schools in late November to curb the rise in daily infections. Following the strict measures, the cases rapidly fell from record highs of around 30,000 to as far as below 6,000.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Wednesday announced Turkey would start to gradually ease COVID-19 restrictions starting March, with provinces set to be categorized based on the risk level and progress in vaccinations to determine whether any given province is ready for normalization.

The risk level will be classified as "very high," "high," "medium" and "low" for every province. Public health boards in each province will be able to decide whether to lift restrictions or tighten them based on those levels.

The 56-hour lockdowns on weekends which start Friday night and end in the early hours of Monday each week will be the first to be lifted, based on the rate of cases and vaccination in the provinces. Nighttime curfews imposed on weekdays are also expected to be removed. Similarly, restrictions on in-person education will be lifted gradually.