Turkey's coronavirus death toll reaches 1,769 with 78,546 total cases

Turkey's confirmed cases of the coronavirus 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.

Turkey's total confirmed cases stood at 78,546, he said. Some 1,542 patients recovered in the last 24 hours, Koca added.

The total number of recovered cases stood at 8,631 as of April 17.

Koca also said 40,270 tests were conducted over the past day, with the overall number of tests reaching 558,413.

İyileşen hasta sayımız yakında 10.000'in üzerine çıkacak. Yatan hasta sayısı ile taburcu edilen hasta sayısı arasında denge oluşmuş durumda. Vaka sayısı artış hızı beklediğimiz şekilde azalıyor. İki gücümüz var: Tedbir, tedavi. Gücümüzü kullanalım.https://t.co/RVlhe7oIYm pic.twitter.com/JqPKqkeZL6

— Dr. Fahrettin Koca (@drfahrettinkoca) April 17, 2020

Turkey is currently treating 1,845 patients in intensive care units, along with 1,014 intubated patients, Koca added.
 
Before the curfew for elderly people, some 30 percent of coronavirus cases in Turkey was among people who were aged over 65, but this figure dropped to 18 percent after the curfew, the minister said.

Koca also said that Turkey can reach the peak of the coronavirus pandemic in one week or 10 days.

We should never let go of our precautions. I am transparently expressing the process with the approach of the Science Board. We all know about the figures. We see that we can reach the peak point in one week [or] 10 days, Koca said.

Koca also added that the number of cases will start to decrease in two or three weeks.

These should not relieve us; we should not let go of our precautions, he said.

According to Koca, there are three important milestones in the fight against the coronavirus: Detecting the case, to be able to do contact tracing scanning; to be powerful in treatment and the third one is isolation.

If this can be ensured, then a new wave [of coronavirus] can be prevented and life can return to normal, he said.