ANKARA, Sept. 20 (Xinhua) -- The increase in Turkey's daily novel coronavirus cases slowed down, but not the number of severe patients, Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on Sunday.
"The number of seriously ill patients has reached 1,456. Although the rate of increase has slowed down, we cannot be peaceful until this number decreases," he tweeted.
The minister's remarks came as the daily cases in Turkey fell to around 1,500.
The country's daily COVID-19 cases increased by 1,519 on Sunday, raising the total diagnosed patients to 302,867, the Turkish Health Ministry announced.
Meanwhile, 61 people died in the past 24 hours, taking the death toll to 7,506, according to the data shared by the ministry.
And 1,116 patients recovered, raising the total recoveries to 267,233 in Turkey since the outbreak.
Turkey reported the first COVID-19 case on March 11.
Turkey and China have supported each other in the fight against COVID-19. Chinese doctors and medical experts held video conferences with Turkish counterparts to share China's experience in treating coronavirus patients, protecting medical workers, and controlling the spread of the virus.
