Turkey had 15,679 confirmed cases of coronavirus as of Wednesday, with an increase of 2,148 in the last 24 hours, the health minister said, while the death toll grew by 63 to 277.
Health Minister Fahrettin Koca posted a chart showing the latest figures in his usual briefing on Twitter after a meeting with a scientific board assisting the ministry.
According to the chart, 14,396 test results have come in since yesterday, and 333 patients have been discharged from hospitals since the onset of the outbreak.
A total of 1,671 people have been hospitalized over the course of the epidemic, of whom 979 were in intensive care.
One of the deceased due to the coronavirus today was Professor Cemil Taşçıoğlu, a prominent medical doctor who had been hospitalized for some time.
Minister Koca told reporters in a press conference on Wednesday that 601 health professionals were tested positive for the COVID-19 disease, caused by the novel coronavirus.
The first case of coronavirus in Turkey was confirmed by the minister on March 11.
Experts say the exponential increase in the number of cases poses a great danger to the Turkish public.
There are claims that the number of COVID-19 cases is actually higher than what is officially announced as many cases go unnoticed because tests are not widely performed.
First seen in the Chinese city of Wuhan, COVID-19 has spread rapidly around the world, infecting more than 911,000 people worldwide and killing more than 45,500. In the meantime, some 190,000 people were treated.
