Turkey
reports three cases of Delta Plus coronavirus variant
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[July 06, 2021]
ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey has identified
three cases of the new Delta Plus COVID-19 variant in three provinces,
its health minister said on Monday, adding that the separate Delta
variant had also been identified in some 284 cases across 30 provinces.
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Health authorities say several major vaccines work against the
highly contagious Delta variant, which is becoming globally
dominant, but have raised concern new strains may evade some
vaccines.
Some scientists say the Delta Plus variant may be even more
contagious.
Turkey, which eased most restrictions on July 1, has reported nearly
5.5 million COVID-19 cases and some 50,000 deaths in total. A
vaccination programme has ramped up to more than a million shots per
day.
"The Delta Plus (variant) was seen in three people in three separate
provinces (including) one in Istanbul," Health Minister Fahrettin
Koca told reporters after a cabinet meeting on Monday. "These people
are in good condition."
Turkey's vaccine programme began in January with shots developed by
Sinovac and has since also been using vaccines by Pfizer and
Biontech, and Russia's Sputnik V.
Koca said Turkey currently had some 8 million shots and would
receive another 26 million Pfizer-BioNtech doses this month, and 1.5
million doses of Sinovac next week.
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 He said Turkey aimed to
administer the first dose of a vaccine to some
43 million people by the Eid al-Adha holiday on
July 20, accounting for 70% of the country's
adult population.
"The vaccine doses received up to now are enough
and the ones we have on hand are also enough,"
Koca said.
Turkey has delivered 53 million shots in total
with 15.92 million people having received a
second dose out of a population of around 84
million.
(Reporting by Yesim Dikmen; Writing by Tuvan
Gumrukcu; Editing by Ece Toksabay, Jonathan
Spicer and Philippa Fletcher)
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