Turkey administers over 88.68M COVID-19 jabs so far

By Merve Berker and Faruk Zorlu

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey has administered over 88.68 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines since launching a mass immunization campaign in January, according to official figures on Sunday.

According to the Health Ministry, over 45.9 million people have received the first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, while more than 35 million are now fully vaccinated.

Turkey has also given third booster shots to over 7.6 million people.

The data showed that 74.01% of the country's adult population has received at least one dose of a two-shot vaccine.

The ministry also confirmed 18,622 new infections and 206 coronavirus-related deaths in the last 24 hours, while as many as 13,263 more patients recovered.

Turkey on Monday expanded its intensive vaccination campaign to include everyone aged 15 and above, as well as children at least 12 years old who have a chronic disease.

A fourth dose of an mRNA vaccine is administered on demand for nationals who were previously given two doses of an inactive vaccine plus one dose of an mRNA but traveling to countries that only allow foreigners who had two doses of an mRNA jab, according to the Health Ministry.

Also, people who have contracted COVID-19 will be eligible for vaccination a month after recovery, as opposed to the previous period of three months.

Since December 2019, the pandemic has claimed over 4.42 million lives in 192 countries and regions, with more than 211.68 million cases reported worldwide, according to the US' Johns Hopkins University.