Nearly 120M coronavirus vaccine shots given in Turkey to date

By Jeyhun Aliyev, Ahmet Gencturk, and Iclal Rabia Turan

ANKARA (AA) – Turkey has administered nearly 120 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines since it launched an immunization drive in January, according to official figures released on Thursday.

More than 56.14 million people have taken a first vaccine dose and over 50.24 million have been fully vaccinated, the Health Ministry said.

Turkey has also given third booster shots to more than 12 million people.

The ministry recorded 24,467 new coronavirus cases, 222 deaths, and 29,639 recoveries over the past day.

As many as 363,043 virus tests were done in the past 24 hours, the data showed.

In a Twitter post, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca urged citizens to comply with all measures taken to fight the pandemic and bring “life closer to normalcy.” ​​​​​​​

Since December 2019, the pandemic has claimed nearly 5.18 million lives in at least 192 countries and regions, with more than 259.7 million cases reported worldwide, according to the US’ Johns Hopkins University.