Turkey has administered over 111.4M COVID vaccine jabs to date

By Jeyhun Aliyev and Rabia Iclal Turan

ANKARA (AA) – Turkey has administered over 111.4 million coronavirus vaccine jabs since the country launched an immunization drive in January, according to official figures released on Wednesday.

More than 54.28 million people have been given a first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, while around 45.64 million are fully vaccinated, the Health Ministry said.

Turkey has also given third booster shots to more than 10.63 million people.

The ministry recorded 30,438 new coronavirus cases, 236 fatalities, and 31,413 recoveries over the last 24 hours.

As many as 358,064 virus tests were conducted in the past day.

Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on Twitter there are three main reasons why the cases do not drop.

"Social mobility has increased a lot. In public spaces and outdoors, measures are not given importance. There are too many areas that the disease is spreading. We haven't achieved herd immunity yet," he noted.

Koca underlined that people must comply with protective measures and complete their vaccinations.

Since December 2019, the pandemic has claimed over 4.82 million lives in at least 192 countries and regions, with more than 236 million cases reported worldwide, according to the US' Johns Hopkins University.​​​​​​​