ANKARA, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- Gene-sequence sampling has found that almost all of Turkey's new COVID-19 cases are caused by the Omicron variant, Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on Wednesday.

He made the remarks after a meeting of the country's coronavirus science board, adding anti-COVID drug Molnupiravir would be used to treat early-stage patients over age 65 or people with chronic diseases starting next week.

Turkey reported a record high of 110,682 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, raising the national tally to 11,833,165, said the Health Ministry.

The country's death toll rose by 217 to 87,831, while 86,671 more people recovered in the last 24 hours, the ministry said.

Turkey's hospital bed occupancy rate stood at 57.8 percent, the intensive care units were 68.7 percent occupied, and the respirator occupancy rate was 31 percent, said the minister, noting that the current trend of infection would not burden hospital capacity.

Turkey has started its mass COVID-19 vaccination on Jan. 14 after the authorities approved the emergency use of the Chinese Sinovac vaccine.

More than 57.45 million people have received their first dose of vaccines, while over 52.44 million had their second dose. Turkey has so far administered over 142.34 million doses including the booster. Enditem

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