Over 40,000 Turkish health professionals test coronavirus positive

More than 40,000 healthcare professionals have tested positive for the novel coronavirus in Turkey since the pandemic hit the country, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said.

Addressing a press briefing on Wednesday, Koca also said that so far 107 medical staff have succumbed to the disease, reports Xinhua news agency.

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"The number of deaths (among healthcare professionals) has also increased recently," Koca said at a press conference.

Also on Wednesday, Turkey reported 1,671 new Covid-19 cases and 57 fatalities, raising the total overall caseload to 340,450 and the death toll to 9,014, the Health Ministry announced.

Turkish health professionals conducted 115,328 tests in the past 24 hours, bringing the overall number of tests to 11,961,670.

A total of 1,396 patients recovered in the last 24 hours, raising the tally of recoveries to 298,368 in Turkey since the outbreak.

The rate of pneumonia in infected patients is 5.9 per cent and the number of seriously ill patients is 1,418.

Turkey reported the first Covid-19 case on March 11.