Nearly 25% of Turkey’s population now have 1st doses of COVID vaccine

By Zehra Nur Duz

ANKARA, Turkey (AA) - Turkey has administered over 33.7 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines since it launched a mass vaccination campaign in mid-January, including first doses to nearly one-fourth of Turkey’s population of some 83.6 million, the Health Ministry announced on Sunday.

More than 20 million people have gotten their first doses, while nearly 13.7 million have been fully vaccinated, according to ministry data.

During the last week, over 3 million coronavirus vaccine doses have been administered in Turkey.

Turkey reported 5,012 new coronavirus cases, including 454 symptomatic patients, over the last 24 hours. The number of new cases on Saturday was 6,076.

The country's overall case tally is over 5.33 million, while the nationwide death toll has reached 48,721 with 53 new fatalities.

Turkey has lowered the vaccine eligibility age to 40, the Turkish health minister announced on Sunday.

“If you are 40 or older, you can make an appointment as of this morning. We expect 100% participation,” Fahrettin Koca wrote on Twitter.

To contain the virus, Turkey currently has a curfew from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. on Monday to Saturday, and a full lockdown on Sundays.

Since December 2019, the pandemic has claimed over 3.79 million lives in 192 countries and regions, with more than 175.7 million cases reported worldwide, according to the US’ Johns Hopkins University.