ANKARA, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Turkey's COVID-19 cases surged to 82,329 after 3,783 new cases were confirmed in the past 24 hours, Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca announced on Saturday.
The coronavirus death toll surpassed 1,890 with 121 new deaths in the country, the minister tweeted.
Koca said that 10,453 patients have recovered from COVID-19 so far, noting that 1,894 cases are being treated at the intensive care units and 1,054 being intubated.
Turkey conducted a total of 40,520 tests for the coronavirus in the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of tests carried out so far to 598,933, he said.
"We have important advantages in treatment. Despite our increasing number of tests, there is a decrease in the number of new cases," the minister stated.
Turkey reported the first COVID-19 case in the country on March 11.