UPDATES WITH STATEMENT OF HEALTH MINISTER, CORONAVIRUS ASSESSMENT MAP
By Burak Bir, Jeyhun Aliyev and Havva Kara Aydin
ANKARA (AA) – Turkey on Monday reported 9,891 new coronavirus cases, including 645 symptomatic patients.
With the new cases the country's overall caseload crossed 2.71 million, including 28,638 related deaths, according to the Health Ministry.
While 69 people died over the past 24 hours, as many as 5,947 won their battle against the disease, bringing the number of recoveries to over 2.57 million.
More than 33.30 million coronavirus tests have been done in Turkey to date, including 130,536 in the last 24 hours.
The latest figures show that the number of COVID-19 patients in critical condition stands at 1,215.
In Turkey's vaccination campaign, which began on Jan. 14, the country has administered nearly 8.9 million jabs nationwide. Over 7 million people have received their first doses, while second doses have been given to nearly 1.85 million.
Turkey on Monday started easing weekend curfews while continuing weeknight curfews to stem the virus' spread. Other restrictions are also being eased based on local risk factors.
Health Minister Fahrettin Koca on Twitter posted a map of Turkey with all 81 provinces color-coded as low, medium, high, or very high risk groups according to the COVID-19 evaluation criteria, which includes the number of cases and vaccination rates.
Colored blue on the map, low-risk provinces included Usak, Sanliurfa, Diyarbakir, Bingol, Mus, Bitlis, Batman, Mardin, Siirt, Sirnak, Hakkari, Van, Agri, and Igdir.
In the yellow medium-risk category are the capital Ankara as well as Bursa, Manisa, Aydin, Denizli, Isparta, Afyonkarahisar, Eskisehir, Cankiri, Kastamonu, Karabuk, Bartin, Corum, Yozgat, Kirsehir, Nevsehir, Sivas, Kahramanmaras, Adana, Gaziantep, Hatay, Malatya, Erzincan, Tunceli, Elazig, Bayburt, Erzurum, and Kars.
High-risk orange provinces include Istanbul — home to some 16 million people — as well as the nation’s third-largest city Izmir, Kirklareli, Tekirdag, Kocaeli, Yalova, Canakkale, Mugla, Antalya, Kutahya, Bilecik, Duzce, Bolu, Zonguldak, Karaman, Mersin, Nigde, Kirikkale, Kayseri, Kilis, Artvin, and Ardahan.
Finally the red very high-risk provinces include Edirne, Balikesir, Sakarya, Burdur, Konya, Aksaray, Sinop, Samsun, Amasya, Tokat, Ordu, Giresun, Gumushane, Trabzon, Rize, Osmaniye, and Adiyaman.
Since December 2019, when the first cases were detected in Wuhan, China, the pandemic has claimed over 2.53 million lives in 192 countries and regions.
Over 114.3 million cases have been reported worldwide, with recoveries now over 64.5 million, according to figures by the US' Johns Hopkins University.
