The Latest: Turkey alters reporting, daily cases over 28,000

LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) — ANKARA, Turkey — The number of daily COVID-19 infections in Turkey has jumped to above 28,000 after, in a surprise development, the government resumed publishing all positive cases and not just the number of patients being treated for symptoms of the coronavirus.

The government was accused of hiding the full extent of the virus spread in Turkey, after it was revealed that the number of asymptomatic cases were not being included in data published since July 29. The Health Ministry was under pressure to resume publishing the total number of cases.

In a news conference Wednesday following a weekly scientific advisory council meeting, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca announced 28,351 new infections in the past 24 hours, emphasizing that the data represented “all people whose PCR tests are positive whether they display symptoms or not.”

Koca on Wednesday, also announced 168 COVID-19 deaths in the past 24 hours. Turkey had previously been reporting around 6,000 daily new patients

The total number of cases since the outbreak started now stands at 467,730, with 12,840 fatalities.

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