ANKARA: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday that he had tested positive for COVID-19 but was not experiencing severe symptoms.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter experiencing light symptoms, my wife and I tested positive for COVID-19. We have a mild infection thankfully, which we learned to be the Omicron variant,\u201d the 67-year-old president said in a tweet.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe remain on duty. We will continue our work from home. We hope for your prayers,\u201d Erdogan added.<\/p>\n
\u201cGod willing we will shake this infection off together with Mr Tayyip,\u201d his 66-year-old wife, Emine Erdogan, tweeted.<\/p>\n
The Turkish president received his third vaccine dose in June last year.<\/p>\n
Turkey has recorded around 12 million cases of COVID-19 and nearly 90,000 deaths since the start of the pandemic.<\/p>\n
Turkey requires people to isolate for seven days if they test positive. However if they test negative on the fifth day, they can leave quarantine.<\/p>\n
The country\u2019s daily number of cases has risen to over 100,000 in recent weeks, which officials have attributed to the highly contagious Omicron variant.<\/p>\n
Masks are widely used in Turkey but there are no restrictions with schools and universities still open, and life continuing as normal without curfews.<\/p>\n
The latest official figures on Saturday showed 52.5 million have had their second vaccine dose in Turkey, which has a population of around 85 million.<\/p>\n
More than 25 million Turks have also got their third dose and officials continue to push for citizens to get vaccinated.<\/p>\n