Over 90% of COVID cases in Turkey are Delta variant: Health minister

By Burcu Calik Gocumlu

ANKARA (AA) - The Delta variant of the novel coronavirus now accounts for over 90% of cases in Turkey, the country's health minister said on Friday.

In a press conference, Fahrettin Koca pointed out that people had become more mobile while complying less with precautions against infection, causing an increase in the number of cases.

Koca stressed that the Delta plus variant was also on the rise, though not at a particularly high rate, and noted that this meant that this switch in variants indicated a rise in contagion intensity.

- Turkey among top three vaccinating countries

Turkey ranks among the world's top three countries in vaccines administered per person over the last month, Koca said.

"Yesterday, we even surpassed the US in the number of people over the age of 18 who were vaccinated with at least the first dose," he said.

On the vaccine, Koca said the Russian Sputnik V vaccine had not started to be given in Turkey as second doses of the jab, which differ from the first doses, had not yet arrived in the country.

He added that initial toxicological findings had shown no problem with the first Sputnik V doses.

Turkey has administered more than 88 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines since launching a mass immunization campaign in January, according to official figures on Thursday.

According to the Health Ministry, over 45.6 million people have received a first dose and more than 34.7 million are now fully vaccinated.

Turkey has also given third booster shots to over 7.5 million people.

The data showed that 73.52% of the country's adult population has received at least one dose of a two-shot vaccine.