An almost five-fold increase in the number of coronavirus infections has been noted in Turkey over the past two weeks, the main share falls on the Omicron strain, the country’s Ministry of Health said on Sunday.
⠀
“From June 27 to July 3 alone, the number of cases of covid in Turkey increased by 114 percent compared to a week earlier. The growth over the past two weeks is almost 5 times,” the ministry said in a statement.
⠀
In this regard, the head of the Turkish Ministry of Health, Fahrettin Koca, called on citizens over 50 years old to get a new covid vaccine.
⠀
“In Turkey, there has been an increase in infections with the omicron strain. We strongly recommend that people over 50 and at risk get a new vaccination if six months have passed since the last vaccination,” the minister wrote on Twitter.
⠀
The Turkish Medical Union last week urged the government to return to restrictive measures due to the increase in coronavirus infections. He, in particular, proposes to make it mandatory to wear protective masks indoors, start vaccinating children, increase testing coverage for coronavirus, and publish data on the situation with the incidence in the country daily, not weekly.
⠀
The mask regime in Turkey was canceled at the end of May due to the stabilization of the situation with coronavirus and a decrease in the number of cases of infection per day to 1,000 or less. In mid-June, the country again experienced an increase in the incidence (up to 4 thousand cases per day).