Turkey identified UK COVID-19 strain in 15 people
Turkey’s health minister declares that the country has detected 15 travelers who have a highly contagious coronavirus strain that was discovered in the United Kingdom.
Health Minister, Fahrettin Koca, related in a statement yesterday that the strain was identified in travelers arriving from the UK. He also said that they were in quarantine with people they had been in contact with. But the new variant was not detected in passengers from elsewhere.
Therefore, Turkey postponed flights with the UK and other countries in late December after discovering the new strain’s spread and isolated at least 4,603 passengers. It also started to require a negative PCR test result for all international arrivals last week.
In fact, Turkey represented one of the worst infection rates in the world. However, official statistics indicate that the 7-day average of daily infections has reduced to almost 15,000 from above 30,000 since evening curfews and weekend closing in early December.
According to ministry statistics, the official death reached 21,093; however, critics have accused the government of intentionally moderating the degree of the county’s outbreak.
