Turkey Logs Record Daily COVID-19 Cases amid Omicron Surge

Municipality workers in protective suits disinfect courtyard of the Kocatepe Mosque to prevent the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), during the holy fasting month of Ramadan in Ankara, Turkey April 15, 2021. (Reuters)
Municipality workers in protective suits disinfect courtyard of the Kocatepe Mosque to prevent the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), during the holy fasting month of Ramadan in Ankara, Turkey April 15, 2021. (Reuters)
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Turkey Logs Record Daily COVID-19 Cases amid Omicron Surge

Municipality workers in protective suits disinfect courtyard of the Kocatepe Mosque to prevent the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), during the holy fasting month of Ramadan in Ankara, Turkey April 15, 2021. (Reuters)
Municipality workers in protective suits disinfect courtyard of the Kocatepe Mosque to prevent the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), during the holy fasting month of Ramadan in Ankara, Turkey April 15, 2021. (Reuters)

Turkey recorded 68,413 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, the highest daily figure on record, health ministry data showed on Thursday, amid surging infections due to the Omicron variant of coronavirus.

It also recorded 156 deaths related to coronavirus in the same period, the data showed.

Cases in Turkey have more than doubled in just over a week as the Omicron variant became dominant in the country.



Traffic on French High-Speed Trains Gradually Improving after Sabotage

Workers operate to reconnect the signal box to the track in its technical ducts in Vald' Yerres, near Chartres on July 26, 2024, as France's high-speed rail network was hit by an attack disrupting the transport system, hours before the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. (AFP)
Workers operate to reconnect the signal box to the track in its technical ducts in Vald' Yerres, near Chartres on July 26, 2024, as France's high-speed rail network was hit by an attack disrupting the transport system, hours before the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. (AFP)
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Traffic on French High-Speed Trains Gradually Improving after Sabotage

Workers operate to reconnect the signal box to the track in its technical ducts in Vald' Yerres, near Chartres on July 26, 2024, as France's high-speed rail network was hit by an attack disrupting the transport system, hours before the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. (AFP)
Workers operate to reconnect the signal box to the track in its technical ducts in Vald' Yerres, near Chartres on July 26, 2024, as France's high-speed rail network was hit by an attack disrupting the transport system, hours before the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. (AFP)

Traffic on France's TGV high-speed trains was gradually returning to normal on Saturday after engineers worked overnight repairing sabotaged signal stations and cables that caused travel chaos on Friday, the opening day of the Paris Olympic Games.

In Friday's pre-dawn attacks on the high-speed rail network vandals damaged infrastructure along the lines connecting Paris with cities such as Lille in the north, Bordeaux in the west and Strasbourg in the east. Another attack on the Paris-Marseille line was foiled, French rail operator SNCF said.

There has been no immediate claim of responsibility.

"On the Eastern high-speed line, traffic resumed normally this morning at 6:30 a.m. while on the North, Brittany and South-West high-speed lines, 7 out of 10 trains on average will run with delays of 1 to 2 hours," SNCF said in a statement on Saturday morning.

"At this stage, traffic will remain disrupted on Sunday on the North axis and should improve on the Atlantic axis for weekend returns," it added.

SNCF reiterated that transport plans for teams competing in the Olympics would be guaranteed.