31.8K new Covid-19 cases raise Turkey total to 4.8 million

ANKARA – Turkey on Friday reported 31,891 new Covid-19 cases, including 2,673 symptomatic patients, raising the total number in the country to 4,820,591, according to its health ministry.

The death toll from the virus in Turkey rose by 394 to 40,131, while the total recoveries climbed to 4,323,897 after 68,183 more recovered in the last 24 hours.

The rate of pneumonia in Covid-19 patients stands at 2.4 percent and the number of seriously ill patients is 3,534 in the country, the ministry said.

A total of 265,287 tests were conducted over the past day, with the overall number of tests in Turkey reaching 47,261,999.

Also in the day, Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said Turkey has granted emergency use of Russia’s Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine.

It will be the third vaccine in use in the country following China’s CoronaVac and BioNTech.

Turkey started mass Covid-19 vaccination on January 14 after the authorities approved the emergency use of the CoronaVac vaccine.

More than 13,717,000 people have been vaccinated so far. (Xinhua)