Turkey's Erdoğan inspects construction of new hospitals in Istanbul

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Saturday inspected the ongoing construction of new hospitals that are being established to aid in the battle against the coronavirus pandemic in the country's most populated city of Istanbul.

Erdoğan had earlier announced that the two new field hospitals will have a capacity of 1,000 beds.

One of them is being built in the Sancaktepe district on the Asian side of Istanbul, while the other facility is planned to operate at the site of the Atatürk Airport in the Yeşiköy district on the city’s European side.

The first stage of a 2,682-bed hospital at Istanbul's Ikitelli district is scheduled to be opened on April 20.

Turkey on Friday confirmed 126 more deaths from the novel coronavirus over the past 24 hours, bringing the death toll to 1,769.

The total number of registered coronavirus cases surged to 78,546 as 4,353 more people tested positive for the virus, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said.

So far, a total of 8,631 have recovered and been discharged from hospitals.