Nearly 120.4M coronavirus vaccine shots given in Turkey to date

By Merve Berker and Jeyhun Aliyev

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey has administered nearly 120.4 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines since it launched an immunization drive this January, according to the latest figures released on Tuesday.

More than 56.26 million people have gotten a first vaccine dose, while over 50.46 million have been fully vaccinated, the Health Ministry said.

Turkey has also given third booster shots to more than 12.2 million people.

Separately, the ministry recorded 25,216 new coronavirus cases, 207 deaths, and 24,498 recoveries from the virus over the past day.

As many as 359,420 virus tests were done in the last 24 hours, the data showed.

On Tuesday, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca on Twitter urged people to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

"Despite knowing the insufficiency of one dose and persistent warnings, there are 5,166,607 people who have not received the second dose of the (COVID-19) vaccine," he noted.

Koca underlined that only 20.01% of Turkey's adult population received the third dose -- a rate "well below the expected level."

"Get vaccinated," stressed Koca, also sharing the country's daily COVID-19 map.

On Saturday, Koca said no cases of the omicron variant, recently detected in South Africa, had been found in Turkey, adding that the delta variant is still the dominant strain in the country.

Last week, South African scientists announced that they had discovered the omicron variant, which has several mutations that may carry the risk of reinfection. Cases of the same variant have since been found in a number of Western countries.

On Friday, the World Health Organization declared the strain a "variant of concern," naming it omicron.

Since December 2019, the pandemic has claimed over 5.21 million lives in at least 192 countries and regions, with more than 262.44 million cases reported worldwide, according to the US-based Johns Hopkins University.