Turkey administers over 112.2M COVID-19 vaccine jabs so far

By Dilan Pamuk and Seda Sevencan

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey has administered over 112.22 million doses of coronavirus vaccines since the country launched an immunization drive in January, according to official figures released on Saturday.

More than 54.46 million people have been given a first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, while around 46.15 million are fully vaccinated, the Health Ministry said.

Turkey has also given third booster shots to more than 10.73 million people.

Separately, the ministry also recorded 28,645 new coronavirus cases, 206 related deaths, and 24,217 recoveries over the last 24 hours.

As many as 348,856 virus tests were conducted in the past day.

- Provincial statistics

Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca also released the latest weekly infection rates across the country's various regions.

Sharing the data for Sept. 25-Oct. 1 on Twitter, Koca cautioned poeple amid the increased infection rates.

Underlining that young people constitute a majority of cases, Koca called on them to get vaccinated and set an example to the rest of the nation.

The number of cases per 100,000 people was 252.11 in the metropolis of Istanbul -- home to nearly one-fifth of Turkey's population -- 363.69 in the capital Ankara, and 47 in the Aegean province of Izmir.

The eastern Van, southern Antalya, and southeastern Mugla provinces had the lowest COVID-19 infections per 100,000 people.

Since December 2019, the pandemic has claimed over 4.84 million lives in at least 192 countries and regions, with more than 237 million cases reported worldwide, according to US-based Johns Hopkins University.​​​​​​​