Turkey’s daily COVID-19 infections climbed to 44,869 on Monday, the highest level since April 23, from 33,520 the previous day, according to Health Ministry data. Deaths totalled 160.
Health Minister Fahrettin Koca warned citizens about the speed of the spread of the Omicron variant of the virus, urging them to get their booster shots and adhere to social distancing measures.
Turkey announced its first cases of Omicron on Dec. 11. The variant accounted for a quarter of cases in the country on Sunday, Koca said.
Some 19.7 million people in Turkey have received a third dose of a jab against COVID-19, the Health Ministry’s data showed.
The authorities have vaccinated 51.7 million adults with two doses of a vaccine. Millions have received the Chinese CoronaVac vaccine. Hong Kong researchers said last month that CoronaVac did not provide adequate protection against Omicron.
Turkey has a population of around 85 million people, meaning those who have received two doses equates to some 60.8 percent of citizens. In the EU, the full inoculation rate among all age groups stands at 69.1 percent, according to ourworldindata.org.
The Turkish government began delivering the homegrown Turkovac vaccine to state hospitals last week. There is no publicly available data concerning Turkovac’s effectiveness against Omicron. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced the emergency use approval of Turkovac on Dec. 22.
Ahval