Turkey's COVID-19 cases continue to fall amid vaccination campaign
Enver Ereli, 59, seated right, a municipal sanitation worker, looks on as Dr. Ayşegül Duyan (L) and nurse Meltem Gülcan (C) try to persuade him to get vaccinated against COVID-19, Mardin, Turkey, May 21, 2021. (AP Photo)


The number of COVID-19 cases in Turkey continued its downward trend as the country reported 6,933 new cases Sunday compared to 7,656 yesterday, according to the Health Ministry.

The ministry noted that the figure included 582 symptomatic patients across the country in the last 24 hours.

Turkey's overall case tally is now over 5.24 million, while the nationwide death toll has reached 47,405 with 134 new fatalities.

As many as 10,763 more patients won the battle against the virus, surging the total number of recoveries past 5.1 million.

Nearly 53.92 million coronavirus tests have been done to date, the data showed.

The latest figures put the number of COVID-19 patients in critical condition at 1,390, similar to Saturday's count of 1,391.

The country administered nearly 1 million coronavirus jabs over the past week and a total of 28.82 million doses since the launch of a mass vaccination campaign in mid-January.

As of Sunday evening, more than 16.51 million people have received their first doses, while over 12.31 million have been fully vaccinated, the Health Ministry's count showed.

Turkey started a gradual normalization process on May 17 after a 17-day lockdown that significantly brought infections in the country down.

Until June 1, the country is enforcing weeknight curfews from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m., while weekends are under full lockdown.

Since December 2019, the pandemic has claimed over 3.53 million lives in 192 countries and regions, with more than 170.05 million cases reported worldwide, according to the U.S.-based Johns Hopkins University.