New COVID variant’s impact to be seen in two weeks, say experts

ANKARA

The impact of the new BA.2 Omicron subvariant of COVID-19 will be observed in Turkey in the next two weeks, according to experts.

Scientists and experts are trying to figure out how the new strain will affect the country, which has recently seen a decline in daily cases from February’s record-high levels.

They assess that the pandemic situation is likely to follow a similar trend observed in other nations due to the new variant and that its impact will become clearer in the next two weeks.

The higher transmission rate of the virus seen in Turkey in the past days may be signaling that infections could rise in the period, they suggested.

COVID-19 is again surging in Western Europe due to a “perfect storm” of governments lifting restrictions, waning immunity and the more contagious BA.2 Omicron subvariant, foreign experts warned earlier this week.

After more than a month of falling cases across much of the continent, countries such as Britain, France, Germany and Italy have all seen a dramatic resurgence of infections in recent days, they said.

The daily tallies in Turkey have remained below 20,000 since March 18, while the number of deaths from the virus has been less than 100 since March 20.

Daily infections in the country surpassed the 100,000 threshold for the first time in February and stayed elevated well into mid-February and started to decline afterward.

The Health Ministry reported earlier this week that the COVID-19 incidence rates between March 5 and March 11 declined in the country’s all 81 provinces compared to the previous week.