Health Ministry: Turkey detects omicron variant in six cities

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The omicron variant of the coronavirus has been detected in six cities so far, the Ministry of Health has announced.

Out of 42 confirmed cases, 30 were in İstanbul and the others were in İzmir (6) Kütahya (2) and Isparta (2) in the country's west and Şırnak (1) and Diyarbakır (1) in the southeast are the other cities, according to the ministry.

İzmir, Kütahya, Isparta in the country's west and Şırnak and Diyarbakır in the southeast are the other cities, according to the ministry.

Out of 42 cases have been found so far, 30 were in İstanbul,

Turkey had started a real-time PCR screening for the omicron variant in 17 when it was first seen in Europe, the ministry noted.

Since the start of the month, 3,374 samples have been examined in the system and 3,073 of them have been found to be the delta variant, it said.

Over 26,000 daily cases

Meanwhile, the ministry announced 26,099 new Covid cases and 157 new deaths in the last 24 hours.

Some 362,535 tests were performed and 22,024 patients recovered in a day, it said.

Among the country's adult population, 91.55 percent received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine and 82.89 percent received at elast two doses. (TP/VK)