In a statement on Thursday, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca confirmed 93 more deaths from the novel coronavirus, bringing the death toll to 3,174.
The total number of registered coronavirus cases in the country increased to 120,204 as 2,615 more people tested positive for the virus. Turkey has now complete over one COVID-19.million tests.
A further 4,846 people recovered from the virus bringing the total number of recoveries to 48,886.
Turkey is currently treating 1,514 patients in intensive care unit with 803 patients intubated.
READ: Turkey completes over 1 million COVID-19 tests; number of patients in critical care declines
Turkey mulls gradual reopening starting from June
The Turkish government is drawing a substantial road map for a gradual normalization and to ease measures taken to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus, with preparations to reopen the country by June in a step-by-step long-term approach.
According to sources, the normalization process will be based on four phases and some parts of it are expected to be announced by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in the next cabinet meeting. The first phase throughout May will be a sort of preparatory period for observing the impacts of the measures on the pace of the spread of outbreak.
Weekend curfews will continue in May, as Erdoğan said earlier, with plans to include May 19 national holiday to a four-day lockdown starting from May 16 as well as Eid al-Fitr between May 23 and May 27, which follows the holy month of Ramadan.
Malls would reopen in mid-May on the condition that the principles of the social distancing will be fully implemented by all the shops and that the playgrounds and the food courts will remain to be closed.
Allowing the elderly people to go out of their houses for a few hours during the weekend curfews is also an issue being discussed at the Science Board, Koca said, although there is still no agreement on it.
READ: https://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/turkey-mulls-gradual-reopening-starting-from-june-154342
First post-plasma treatment COVID-19 recovery recorded in Turkey
A novel coronavirus patient, who received immune plasma treatment, has recovered from COVID-1 in the province of Malatya.
COVID-19 patients who recovered from the disease are being asked to donate blood plasma to be used to treat other coronavirus patients.
102 potential coronavirus vaccines in the works
The World Health Organization (WHO) has announced that 102 potential Covid-19 vaccines are being developed around the world as scientists worldwide find a permanent solution to the novel Coronavirus that has killed hundreds of thousands worldwide and shut down economic life.
Eight of the potential vaccines are approved for clinical trials. That is up from seven vaccines four days ago. The additional group is from China, but it is unclear if they have started trials on human study subjects – the other seven have.
Of the groups approved by WHO for clinical trials on humans, four are from China, one is from England, one is American and another is a combined American and European group.
The American National Institutes of Health (NIH) trial was the first to start testing in human trial subjects on March 16.
Global statistics
There are now 3,333,494 confirmed cases of COVID-19 globally, of which 1,053,569 have recovered. The number of fatalities stands at 235,136.
Source: Worldometer.
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