Ankara, Dec 26 (IANS): The Covid-19 Omicron variant started to spread in Turkey, especially in crowded provinces, and it accounts for over 10 per cent of the new cases in these cities, the Turkish health minister has said.

"More than 10 per cent of new cases in our crowded provinces are caused by Omicron," Health Minister Fahrettin Koca tweeted.

"Nothing to worry about. We have the necessary knowledge and pandemic experience," Xinhua news agency quoted the minister as saying.

Stating that this variant does not require additional personal precautions and does not cause a significant increase in hospitalisations, Koca noted that the fight against the pandemic will continue with masks, distance rules and vaccines.

Turkey on Saturday reported 20,470 new Covid-19 cases, raising its tally of infections to 9,286,986, according to the health ministry.

The death toll from the virus in Turkey rose by 145 to 81,403, while 22,109 more people recovered in the last 24 hours.

A total of 357,536 tests were conducted over the past day, it said.

More than 56.78 million people have received their first doses of the vaccine, while over 51.38 million had their second doses. Turkey has so far administered over 128.34 million doses including third booster jabs.