Turkey starts distance schooling amid COVID-19 concerns
Xinhua
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ANKARA, Aug. 31 (Xinhua) -- Turkish students started online schooling on Monday amid growing concerns over the spread of the COVID-19 infection as the daily cases are on the rise in Turkey.

The country mulls to start face-to-face education on Sept. 21 after evaluation of the pandemic situation, the Turkish education minister said on Monday.

"We will adopt distance education until Sept. 18. Works are continuing for the process to start on Sept. 21," Education Minister Ziya Selcuk told reporters.

Turkey confirmed 1,587 new COVID-19 cases on Monday, raising the total diagnosed patients to 270,133, Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said.

Meanwhile, 44 people died in the past 24 hours, taking the death toll to 6,370, he tweeted.

Turkish health professionals conducted 110,102 tests in the past 24 hours, bringing the overall number of tests to 7,138,492, he said.

A total of 1,087 patients recovered in the last 24 hours, raising the total recoveries to 244,926 in Turkey since the outbreak, Koca added.

The rate of pneumonia in COVID-19 patients is 7.5 percent and the number of seriously ill patients is 961, he stated.

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

Turkey and China have supported each other in the fight against COVID-19.

Chinese doctors and medical experts held video conferences with Turkish counterparts to share China's experience in treating coronavirus patients, protecting medical workers, and controlling the spread of the virus. Enditem