Turkey administers over 48.3M coronavirus vaccine shots

By Dilan Pamuk, Burak Bir, and Ahmet Gencturk

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey has administered over 48.3 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines since it launched a mass vaccination campaign in January, according to official figures released on Monday.

More than 33.35 million people have received their first doses, while over 14.95 million have been fully vaccinated, showed the Health Ministry count.

It also confirmed 5,283 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, including 431 symptomatic patients.

Turkey's overall case tally is now over 5.41 million, while the nationwide death toll has reached 49,634 with 58 new fatalities.

As many as 5,327 more patients have won the battle against the virus, bringing the number of recoveries past 5.28 million.

Over 60.3 million coronavirus tests have been done to date.

The latest figures put the number of COVID-19 patients in critical condition at 751.

Amid a nationwide fall in virus cases, Turkey is set to end all virus-related restrictions starting this Thursday.

Turkey has suspended flights from Bangladesh, Brazil, South Africa, India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka until further notice, according to a circular issued by the Interior Ministry on Monday.

Also, passengers from the UK, Iran, Egypt, and Singapore are now required to have a negative COVID-19 test result taken within the last 72 hours.

- Provincial statistics

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

Sharing the data for June 19-25 on Twitter, Koca said: "The fall in the number of cases increases our courage for normalization. We will get rid of concerns through vaccines."

The number of cases per 100,000 people was 54 in the metropolis of Istanbul -- home to nearly one-fifth of Turkey’s population -- 83 in the capital Ankara, and 27 in the Aegean province of Izmir.

The southern provinces of Osmaniye, Adiyaman, and Hatay had the lowest COVID-19 infections per 100,000 people.

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

Since December 2019, the pandemic has claimed over 3.92 million lives in 192 countries and regions, with more than 181.1 million cases reported worldwide, according to the US' Johns Hopkins University.