People wait to receive a dose of Turkey’s domestically-produced Turkovac coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine at the Ankara City Hospital in Ankara, Turkey January 6, 2022. Photo: REUTERS/Cagla Gurdogan

Turkey has recorded 94,783 new COVID-19 cases in the space of 24 hours, its highest daily figure of the pandemic, health ministry data showed on Saturday, but Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said the worst of the pandemic was over.

Daily cases have surged to record levels in recent weeks with the spread of the Omicron variant, but Koca has said the new variant would reduce the impact of the pandemic because the illness it causes is less severe.

“The rise we see in case numbers should not be seen as disheartening. The virus is not at its old strength. The worrying part of the pandemic is over,” Koca said on Twitter.

The day’s COVID-19 death total was 174. In late December, daily cases stood at about 20,000, before a surge in infections due to Omicron.