CAIRO, Jan. 1 (Xinhua) -- Turkey reported 12,203 new COVID-19 cases including 1,908 symptomatic ones on Friday, the first day of 2021, raising the total number in the country to 2,220,855, while Iran confirmed 6,286 more cases, taking the total nationwide infections to 1,231,429.
The death toll from the virus in Turkey, arguably the hardest hit country in the Middle East, rose by 212 to 21,093, while the total recoveries climbed to 2,114,760 after 14,110 more recovered in the past 24 hours, according to the country's health ministry.