Turkey: Opposition lawmaker tests COVID-19 positive

By Emin Avundukluoglu

ANKARA (AA) - An unnamed opposition lawmaker in Turkey tested positive for the novel coronavirus on Friday, according to the party's parliamentary group.

"It was discerned after initial tests that one of our lawmakers had been infected. The lawmaker is under the doctor's control and is improving," the Peoples' Democratic Party's (HDP) parliamentary group announced Friday.

Turkey on Thursday confirmed a total of 165,706 recoveries from COVID-19, nearly one month into its normalization process to ease the precautions it had taken to curb the impact of the disease.

The country's death toll is currently 5,046, with total cases at 193,115.

Since first appearing in China last December, the novel coronavirus has spread to at least 188 countries and regions. The US, Brazil, and Russia are currently the countries hardest hit in the world.

The pandemic has killed over 489,500 people worldwide, with more that 9.6 million confirmed cases, and recoveries exceeding 4.8 million, according to figures compiled by the US' Johns Hopkins University.