The rate of infection by the novel coronavirus in Turkey has fallen by over a third from 15 percent to 9 percent in the past week, despite rising test numbers, with recoveries surging by more than three fold.
As a result of 598,933 test conducted since March 10 — the beginning of the outbreak in Turkey — 82,329 patients were diagnosed with coronavirus. Since then, 1,890 people died, while 10,453 patients recovered.
TESTS HAVE BEEN APPLIED FREE OF CHARGED
The death rate from the virus since the first fatality on March 17 until April 18 was 2.29 percent. When multiple patients died for the first time on March 19, the ratio of deaths to cases was 1.2 percent. The rate had increased to 1.7 percent by the end of March, with 2,704 cases and 46 fatalities.
On April 11, when the highest number of daily cases were detected, this rate was recorded as 1.85 percent.
Testings for the coronavirus is offered free of charge in hospitals affiliated to the Health Ministry, as well as hospitals, universities and laboratories the ministry authorizes. By April 18, the number of daily tests conducted had reached a record 40,520. In total, 598,933 tests had been conducted by Saturday.
On April 11, when the number of tests was 33,170, authorities had reported that 5,138 people tested positive, on April 18, when 40,520 tests were performed, this figure dropped to 3,783.
According to the total number of tests, this rate, which was 15.4 percent on April 11, dropped to 9.3 percent on Saturday.