Three largest cities see rise in weekly cases

Turkey's three most populous cities, Istanbul, Ankara and İzmir, have seen increases in the weekly COVID-19 cases at varying rates.

The incidence rate, measuring the number of coronavirus infections per 100,000 people, rose slightly to around 895 in Istanbul, which is home to nearly 16 million residents, in the week of Jan. 29-Feb. 4 from 890 between Jan. 22 and Jan. 28.

Experts had predicted that COVID-19 cases would first decline due to the snowstorm, which hit the city last month and confined people to their homes, but would start to rise again. The incidence rate was 1,246 in the city in the week of Jan. 15-Jan. 21.

Ankara and İzmir, the second and third most populous provinces, saw larger increases in the weekly cases, data from the Health Ministry showed.

The incident rate in the capital climbed from 1,003 to 1,280, while it increased from 962 to 1,229 in İzmir over the same period.

Earlier, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said more efforts were needed to bring the spread of the virus under control.

"Between Jan. 6 and Jan. 12, there were 106,000 more cases than the number of patients recovered," he wrote on Twitter on Feb. 13. He, however, noted that this situation has not significantly increased hospitalizations.

"We have to bring the number of cases in order to reduce the deaths [from the virus]. Vaccine and measures prevent infections," Koca said.

Meanwhile, the number of COVID-19 vaccines administered in Turkey has exceeded 144 million doses.

Nearly 53 million people have been double jabbed, while more than 26 million people have received a booster shot. Over 57 million people have received at least one dose of the vaccine.

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