ANKARA 

Turkey on Sunday confirmed 1,298 more recoveries from the novel coronavirus, bringing the total tally to 194,515, according to the country's health minister.

Citing Health Ministry data, Fahrettin Koca said on Twitter that a total of 1,012 people had contracted COVID-19, bringing the overall number to 212,993.

COVID-19 patients recovered in Turkey over the past 24 hours, bringing the overall number to 194,515.

The country's death toll from the coronavirus rose to 5,363, with 19 new fatalities reported over the last 24 hours.

Healthcare professionals conducted over 45,232 tests for the disease since Saturday, raising the total count to over 3.9 million.

Koca noted that the capital Ankara, Istanbul, Konya, Diyarbakır and Bursa were the five provinces with that the highest number of intubated patients registered in the last three days.

He added that Istanbul, Sanliurfa, Ankara, Gaziantep and Konya had the most average number of intensive care patients.

The coronavirus pandemic has claimed over 566,000 lives in 188 countries and regions since it originated in China last December.

More than 12.7 million COVID-19 cases have been reported around the world so far, with recoveries exceeding 7 million, according to figures compiled by the US' Johns Hopkins University.

The US, Brazil, Russia, and India are currently the worst-hit countries in the world.