Turkey gives over 40M coronavirus vaccine shots

By Handan Kazanci

ISTANBUL (AA) - Turkey has administered over 40 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines since it launched a mass vaccination campaign in mid-January, the Turkish health minister announced on Friday.

"Among 206 countries, we are the ninth country with the most vaccines administered," Fahrettin Koca said on Twitter.

On some days, Turkish health personnel vaccinated 6,000 people per minute, Koca added.

More than 25.7 million people have received their first doses, while over 14.2 million have been fully vaccinated, showed the Health Ministry data.

Turkey's overall case tally is now over 5.3 million, while the nationwide death toll has reached 49,012 with 62 new fatalities as of Thursday.

To fight the spread of the virus, Turkey currently has a curfew from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. on Monday to Saturday and a full lockdown on Sundays.

Since December 2019, the pandemic has claimed over 3.8 million lives in 192 countries and regions, with more than 177.5 million cases reported worldwide, according to the US-based Johns Hopkins University.