Number of countries which detected cases of new coronavirus variant increased to 33, including Britain, where the virus appeared, according to what media reports published on Saturday.
On Friday, Turkey became the latest country to detect infections of 15 people with the new UK coronavirus variant.
Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said in a statement that the strain was found in travelers arriving from UK.
Koca added that they were in quarantine, along with people they had been in contact with, noting that the new strain was not identified in passengers from elsewhere.
Turkey suspended flights with the UK along with other countries in late December upon discovery of the new variant's spread and quarantined at least 4,603 passengers.
Turkey also began to require a negative PCR test result for all international arrivals last week.
The official death toll is 21,093, according to ministry statistics; however, critics have accused the government of deliberately downplaying the extent of the county's outbreak.
The list of countries that have identified the new coronavirus variant has been increasing, most of which are in Europe, including Britain, Turkey, Belgium, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Ireland, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal and Norway.
The virus was also discovered in Asian countries such as China, India, Japan, Jordan, Lebanon, Israel, Pakistan, Singapore, South Korea, the Emirates and Taiwan, as well as the United States, Canada, Brazil, Chile and Australia.
Number of countries barring travelers arriving from Britain has also increased to more than 40, while some countries imposed restrictions on travelers who have visited the countries in which the virus was discovered.
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