Turkey has recorded 66 deaths and 1,693 new coronavirus patients over the past day, the Health Ministry announced Thursday.

According to Health Ministry data, more than 116,000 coronavirus tests were carried out across the country in the past 24 hours. Turkey has conducted more than 12 million COVID-19 tests since the outbreak's start in the country.

With Thursday's numbers, Turkey's total death toll from COVID-19 rose to 9,080, while the total number of patients stood at 342,143.

Meanwhile, the number of recoveries also increased to 299,679 with 1,311 patients declared healthy.

"The number of critical patients continue to decline. We can reduce the number of patients by following the measures together," Health Minister Fahrettin Koca wrote on Twitter.

After going through the worst of the outbreak and managing to lower the number of daily cases below 1,000, Turkey has been witnessing a resurgence in new infections.

In an effort to halt the steadily rising infection rates, the government introduced several measures. It made wearing masks outside mandatory across all provinces and began running mass transit at a reduced capacity.

The Education Ministry also scrapped its plans to fully reopen schools, opting for a more gradual opening. Kindergartners and first graders were the first group allowed back in classrooms in September, with more students starting in-person education at schools this Monday.