COVID-19 cases rise in Istanbul, Ankara: Minister

ANKARA

Turkey’s metropolis Istanbul and capital Ankara are among the seven provinces that have seen the sharpest increases in the new coronavirus cases over the past three days, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca has said.

The other cities where infections spiked included the eastern provinces of Gaziantep, Mardin and Diyarbakır, the central Anatolian province of Konya, and the northwestern province of Bursa, the minister said without providing further details.

Koca previously said that Istanbul, the largest city by population, accounted for nearly 54 percent of all confirmed cases in Turkey.

According to the data Koca provided, 1,127 patients were in intensive care units as of July 5, up from 1,093 on July 4 and 1,082 on July 3.