Turkey administers over 47.2M coronavirus vaccine shots

By Merve Aydogan

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey has administered over 47.2 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines since it launched a mass vaccination campaign in mid-January, according to official figures released on Sunday.

More than 32.4 million people have received their first doses, while over 14.8 million have been fully vaccinated, showed the Health Ministry count.

It also confirmed 4,883 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, including 390 symptomatic patients.

Turkey's overall case tally is now over 5.4 million, while the nationwide death toll has reached 49,576 with 52 new fatalities.

As many as 5,937 more patients won the battle against the virus, taking the number of recoveries past 5.2 million.

Over 60.1 million coronavirus tests have been done to date.

The latest figures put the number of COVID-19 patients in critical condition at 736.

The country's Health Minister Fahrettin Koca on Twitter also announced the number of vaccines administered across the country while adding that at least 54 percent of adults over 18 in Turkey vaccinated with at least a single dose of a COVID jab.

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 virus cases, Turkey is set to end all restrictions, which include nighttime curfews and full lockdown on Sundays, from 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 180.8 million cases reported worldwide, according to the US' Johns Hopkins University.