Turkey has administered nearly 104.9M vaccine jabs to date

By Merve Aydogan

ANKARA (AA) – Turkey has administered nearly 104.9 million coronavirus vaccine jabs since the country launched an immunization drive in January, according to official figures released Saturday.

Some 52.6 million people have gotten their first doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, while more than 41.9 million are fully vaccinated, the Health Ministry said.

The data showed that 84.74% of the country's adult population has received at least one dose of a two-shot vaccine.

Turkey has also given third booster shots to over 9.78 million people.

Separately, the ministry reported 26,161 new coronavirus cases, while as many as 221 more people lost their fight against the disease in the last 24 hours.

As many as 335,244 tests for the virus were done over the past day.

Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on Twitter: "Case numbers should be compared with the average one week ago, not the day before."

He urged everyone to follow the measures to curb the virus' spread and get vaccinated.

Since December 2019, the pandemic has claimed over 4.68 million lives in at least 192 countries and regions, with almost 227.8 million cases reported worldwide, according to the US' Johns Hopkins University.