Turkey detects first six cases of Omicron variant

Istanbul: Turkey has detected the first six cases of the Omicron variant of coronavirus, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca reported.  

Reportedly, five of the cases were in the western city but none of those affected needed hospital treatment.

Hence, all the cases are in the country's western provinces with five of them in Izmir and one in Istanbul.

The Turkish health minister gave no further details about how they caught the Omicron variant.  

On Saturday, Turkey reported 19,255 daily coronavirus cases with 191 deaths. 

In the meantime, over 82% of the population had at least two vaccine shots.

As per World Health Organization, the Omicron variant, which it had declared a "variant of concern," has been detected in 57 countries so far. 

South African scientists announced on November 24 the discovery of the novel variant, which has several mutations.