By Beyza Binnur Donmez and Faruk Zorlu
ANKARA (AA) - Turkey has administered more than 120.64 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines since it launched an immunization drive in January, according to the latest figures released on Thursday.
More than 56.3 million people have gotten a first vaccine dose, while over 50.5 million have been fully vaccinated, the Health Ministry said.
Turkey has also given third booster shots to more than 12.2 million people.
Separately, the ministry recorded 21,747 new coronavirus cases, 192 deaths, and 22,284 recoveries from the virus over the past day.
As many as 354,385 virus tests were done in the last 24 hours, the data showed.
According to the health authorities, so far, no cases of the omicron variant had been found in Turkey. In the meantime, the delta variant is still the dominant strain in the country.
Last week, South African scientists announced that they had discovered the omicron variant, which has several mutations that may carry the risk of reinfection. Cases of the same variant have since been found in a number of Western countries.
On Friday, the World Health Organization declared the strain a "variant of concern."
Since December 2019, the pandemic has claimed over 5.22 million lives in at least 192 countries and regions, with more than 263.8 million cases reported worldwide, according to the US-based Johns Hopkins University.