CAIRO, May 21 -- Turkey saw new signs of slowdown in the COVID-19 pandemic on Thursday with 961 new infections reported, while Saudi Arabia continued to lead the region in terms of daily rise of coronavirus infections.

This was the second day that Turkey's daily infections with the novel coronavirus fell below 1,000, after 972 cases were reported on Wednesday.

So far, the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Turkey climbed to 153,548, while the death toll surged to 4,249 after 27 more deaths were added, Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca tweeted.

A total of 1,003 patients recovered from the respiratory disease on Thursday, bringing the overall number of recoveries to 114,990.

Turkey's tourism sector said it is looking forward to attracting Chinese tourists back to the country once the COVID-19 pandemic is fully contained.

"China is a huge market, and we are attaching significant importance to the country and Chinese people," Firuz Baglikaya, head of the Association of Turkish Travel Agencies, said at an online press conference in the largest Turkish city of Istanbul.

Baglikaya said China and Turkey will continue to improve their already strong ties even further when everything is back to normal in the post-pandemic era.

Iran on Thursday registered 66 new deaths from the coronavirus, bringing the death toll to 7,249, the highest in the region.

The total confirmed COVID-19 cases in Iran surged to 129,341 after 2,392 new cases were reported.

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