Turkey administers over 46.3M coronavirus vaccine shots

By Zehra Nur Duz

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey has administered over 46.3 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines since it launched a mass vaccination campaign in mid-January, according to official figures released on Friday.

More than 31.5 million people have received their first doses, while over 14.7 million have been fully vaccinated, showed the Health Ministry count.

It also confirmed 5,630 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, including 477 symptomatic patients.

Turkey's overall case tally is now over 5.39 million, while the nationwide death toll has reached 49,473 with 56 new fatalities.

As many as 7,184 more patients won the battle against the virus, taking the number of recoveries past 5.26 million.

Over 59.66 million coronavirus tests have been done to date.

The latest figures put the number of COVID-19 patients in critical condition at 737.

Turkey on Wednesday lowered the COVID-19 vaccination eligibility age to 18, with appointments to be scheduled as of Friday, according to Health Minister Fahrettin Koca.

On Tuesday, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also unveiled Turkovac, the country's homegrown COVID-19 vaccine candidate, which has entered Phase 3 clinical trials.

Amid a nationwide fall in COVID-19 cases, Turkey is set to end all restrictions, which include nighttime curfews and full lockdown on Sundays, as of July 1.

On June 1, the country eased some measures following a 17-day strict lockdown.

Since December 2019, the pandemic has claimed over 3.9 million lives in 192 countries and regions, with more than 180.1 million cases reported worldwide, according to the US' Johns Hopkins University.