Over 28.76M vaccine shots administered in Turkey to date

By Jeyhun Aliyev and Dilan Pamuk

ANKARA (AA) – Turkey has administered over 28.76 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines since the launch of a mass vaccination campaign in mid-January, according to official figures.

As of Saturday evening, more than 16.47 million people have received their first doses, while over 12.28 million have been fully vaccinated, the Health Ministry's count showed.

The ministry also confirmed 7,656 new coronavirus cases, including 605 symptomatic patients, across the country in the last 24 hours. The number of new cases on Friday was 7,773.

Turkey's overall case tally is now over 5.09 million, while the nationwide death toll has reached 47,271 with 137 new fatalities.

As many as 11,180 more patients won the battle against the virus, surging the total number of recoveries past 5.09 million.

Over 53.70 million coronavirus tests have been done to date.

The latest figures put the number of COVID-19 patients in critical condition at 1,391, down from Friday's count of 1,454.

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 3.52 million lives in 192 countries and regions, with more than 169.56 million cases reported worldwide, according to the US-based Johns Hopkins University.