COVID-19 cases in Turkey overtake Iran, highest in Middle East

The confirmed cases of coronavirus in Turkey have surge to 82,329 overtaking the neighbouring country Iran in the region to register the highest total in the Middle East, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on Saturday.

The country has recorded an increase of 3,783 cases in the last 24 hours also pushed Turkey’s confirmed tally within a few hundred of China, where the novel coronavirus first emerged.

Koca said 121 more people have died contracting the virus and thus the death toll reached to 1,890 while a total of 10,453 people have recovered from coronavirus so far. The number of 40,520 screening carried out over the past 24 hours.

Turkey’s government also said it was extending restrictions on travel between 31 cities for a further 15 days starting at midnight on Saturday.