Turkey records nearly 45,000 Covid-19 cases as Omicron surges

Turkey recorded 44,869 new Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours, the highest daily figure since late April, health ministry data showed on Monday.

It also recorded 160 deaths due to Covid-19 in the same period.

Cases in Turkey have more than doubled in just over a week as the Omicron variant became dominant in the country.  

"Although there are no restrictions, we recommend that you act as if there are," Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on Twitter in what he called a New Year's "warning".

Turkey is also reeling from a currency crisis as the value of the Turkish lira has plunged against the dollar. 

The lira logged its worst year in 2021 since President Tayyip Erdogan came to power nearly two decades ago, despite his appeal on Friday for Turks to trust his unorthodox policies of slashing interest rates in the face of soaring inflation.