Turkey reports 28,997 new COVID-19 cases

People bury a deceased COVID-19 patient at Ortakoy cemetery in Ankara, Turkey, on May 4, 2021. Turkey on Tuesday confirmed 28,997 new COVID-19 cases, including 2,483 symptomatic patients, raising the total number of cases in the country to 4,929,118, according to its health ministry. The death toll from the virus in Turkey rose by 336 to 41,527. (Photo by Mustafa Kaya/Xinhua)

ANKARA, May 4 (Xinhua) -- Turkey on Tuesday confirmed 28,997 new COVID-19 cases, including 2,483 symptomatic patients, raising the total number of cases in the country to 4,929,118, according to its health ministry.

The death toll from the virus in Turkey rose by 336 to 41,527, while the total recoveries climbed to 4,554,037 after 38,218 more people recovered in the last 24 hours.

The rate of pneumonia in COVID-19 patients stands at 3.2 percent and the number of seriously ill patients is 3,452 in the country, said the ministry.

A total of 241,747 tests were conducted over the past day, with the overall number of tests in Turkey reaching 48,229,733.

Turkey started mass COVID-19 vaccination on Jan. 14 after the authorities approved the emergency use of the CoronaVac vaccine. More than 14,194,000 people have been vaccinated so far.

Turkey reported its first COVID-19 case on March 11, 2020.