Turkey is seeing the second peak of the coronavirus outbreak due to "carelessness" at weddings and other social gatherings, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on Wednesday, amid a rapid rise in the number of daily cases and deaths.
Speaking after a meeting of his coronavirus science team, Koca said the capital Ankara had seen the most rapid rise in the number of cases lately. He added that 29,865 healthcare workers had contracted the virus so far, with 52 of them dying.
"The outbreak is increasingly continuing. The virus is spreading to more people each day. Our test numbers are rising every day, our new patient numbers are not falling.," Koca said.
The number of new COVID-19 cases rose by 1,596 to 273,301 in the last 24 hours, according to Health Ministry data, while the death toll from the virus rose by 45 to 6,462. Total recoveries stood at 246,876, the data showed.