Turkey's confirmed cases of the COVID-19 disease increased by 4,353 in the past 24 hours, and 126 more people have died, taking the death toll to 1,769, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on Friday.
The total number of cases in the country stood at 78,546, he said. A total of 8,631 people have recovered from the new coronavirus so far, and the number of tests carried out over the past 24 hours came to 40,270, the minister said.
"With the rising number of tests, the number of cases continues to increase, but the rising speed of the cases has dropped. It will not be surprising to have a flattening in the coming days," Koca said.
Before the curfew, 35% of cases in Turkey were among people who are 65 years old or older, while this percentage drops to 18% after the curfew, Koca said.
Turkey imposed a 48-hour curfew in 31 provinces across the country on April 11-12, implemented as part of measures to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus.
The next curfew will be imposed on April 18-19.
After originating in China last December, COVID-19, the disease caused by coronavirus, has spread to at least 185 countries and regions across the world. Europe and the U.S. are currently the worst-hit regions.
The pandemic has killed over 147,300 people, with total infections exceeding 2.18 million, while more than 555,100 have recovered from the disease, according to figures compiled by the U.S.-based Johns Hopkins University.
