AKIPRESS.COM - Turkey’s death toll from COVID-19 has reached 4,397 with 28 new deaths in the past 24 hours, AP reports citing the health minister.

Fahrettin Koca tweeted Tuesday 948 new infections, bringing the total number of cases to 158,762.

More than 121,500 people have recovered and people needing intensive care continued on a downward trend, according to the health ministry statistics.

Turkey ranks ninth in a tally by Johns Hopkins University for the number of cases, but experts believe the rate of infections globally could be much higher than reported. The country ranks 14th in number of deaths.

Turkey’s 83 million citizens are on the final day of a four-day nationwide lockdown. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said he hoped this restriction to stay at home would be the last round. He’s expected to announce new policies and easing measures against COVID-19 later this week.

The country has opted for weekend and holiday lockdowns in large cities for nearly two months and has kept people above 65 and under 20 at home.