Turkey has conducted more than 4.8 million COVID-19 tests after conducting some 46,500 over the past day, the country's health minister said Friday.

According to figures Fahrettin Koca shared on Twitter, Turkey registered 982 new coronavirus cases and almost 1,000 recoveries during the past 24 hours.

A total of 17 more patients lost their lives due to the disease, bringing the death toll to 5,961.

More than 214,500 patients have successfully recovered from the virus in Turkey.

The tally of cases has hit 230,873.

The coronavirus pandemic has claimed over 674,000 lives in 188 countries and regions since it originated in China last December.

More than 17.3 million COVID-19 cases have been reported around the world so far, with recoveries nearing 10.1 million, according to figures compiled by the Johns Hopkins University.

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