Turkey sees 37 percent increase in daily COVID-19 infections within last week

Turkey has experienced a 37 percent increase in daily COVID-19 cases and a 47 percent increase in daily virus-related deaths within the last week. The country has been wrestling with a third wave of infections after the government eased the measures in early March.

Thursday April 08 2021 09:42 pm

People wearing protective face masks walk on a street in the Central Anatolian province of Konya in this file photo.

Duvar English

The number of daily COVID-19 cases in Turkey has increased by 37 percent from April 1 to April 8.

For the first time on April 1, the country has seen over 40,000 virus cases, with a tally of 40,806 infections.

On April 8, the country's “third wave” explosion of COVID-19 infections continued with 55,941 new cases, the highest daily level since the start of the pandemic.

The number of daily COVID-19-related fatalities registered an increase of 47 percent within the past week, rising from 176 on April 1 to 258 on April 8.

As for the number of seriously ill patients, this figure marked an increase of 22 percent, from 2,135 on April 1 to 2,615 on April 8.

Over this time period, the test positivity rate (the ratio of the number of positive tests to the total number of tests run in a day) saw a jump from 16.74 percent to 18.37 percent.

Turkey has entered a third peak of the pandemic following Ankara's relaxing of measures in early March.

The rising numbers have forced Ankara to tighten restrictions, as the government announced the return of weekend curfews in high-risk cities.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said that hoped the adaptation of further measures during Ramadan would help the country lower the number of cases in time for tourism season in May.