Over 40M people receive 1st COVID-19 jabs in Turkey

By Gozde Bayar

ANKARA (AA) – More than 40 million people have received their first doses of coronavirus vaccines in Turkey, the country’s health minister said on Wednesday.

Fahrettin Koca also announced the latest weekly infection rates for COVID-19 across 81 provinces in total.

Sharing the data for July 17 to July 23 on Twitter, Koca urged people to get vaccinated and follow the measures.

The number of cases per 100,000 people was 88.19 in Istanbul – home to nearly one-fifth of Turkey's population – 69.13 in the capital Ankara, and 33.43 in the Aegean province of Izmir.

Turkey has administered over 69.2 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines since it launched a mass vaccination campaign in January.

The country continues its intensive vaccination campaign to curb the virus’ spread, as everyone 16 and over is eligible for vaccine shots.

Amid a nationwide drop in cases and an expedited vaccination drive, Turkey entered a new normalization phase on July 1, lifting almost all virus-related restrictions.

However, seeking to limit the spread of the virus’ Delta variant, the country suspended flights from India, and required arrivals from the UK, Iran, Egypt, and Singapore to have negative COVID-19 test results taken within 72 hours prior.

Since December 2019, the pandemic has claimed over 4.17 million lives in 192 countries and regions, with over 195.36 million cases reported, according to the US’ Johns Hopkins University.