Over 28.67M vaccine shots administered in Turkey to date

By Gozde Bayar and Beyza Binnur Donmez

ANKARA (AA) – Turkey has administered over 28.67 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines since the launch of a mass vaccination campaign in mid-January, according to official figures.

As of Friday, more than 16.41 million people have received their first doses, while over 12.25 million have been fully vaccinated, the Health Ministry's count showed.

The ministry also confirmed 7,773 new coronavirus cases, including 656 symptomatic patients, across the country in the last 24 hours. The number of new cases on Thursday was 8,426.

Turkey's overall case tally is now over 5.22 million, while the nationwide death toll has reached 47,134 with 164 new fatalities.

As many as 12,284 more patients won the battle against the virus, surging the total number of recoveries past 5.08 million.

Over 53.47 million coronavirus tests have been done to date.

The latest figures put the number of COVID-19 patients in critical condition at 1,454, down by 50 from Thursday's count.

Turkey started a gradual normalization process on May 17 after a 17-day lockdown that significantly brought infections in the country down.

Until June 1, the country is enforcing weeknight curfews from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m., while weekends are under full lockdown.

Since December 2019, the pandemic has claimed over 3.51 million lives in 192 countries and regions, with more than 169.07 million cases reported worldwide, according to the US-based Johns Hopkins University.