Turkey has given over 105M coronavirus vaccine jabs to date

By Merve Aydogan

ANKARA (AA) – Turkey has administered over 105 million coronavirus vaccine jabs since the country launched an immunization drive in January, according to official figures released on Sunday.

Some 52.6 million people have gotten their first doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, while more than 42 million are fully vaccinated, the Health Ministry said.

The data showed that over 84.8% 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 9.8 million people.

Separately, the ministry reported 26,398 new coronavirus cases, while as many as 213 more people lost their fight against the disease in the last 24 hours.

As many as 338,873 tests for the virus were done over the past day.

Citing the number of cases in the past week, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on Twitter that the country would not be able to prevent "high number of deaths" if the number of cases continues to rise.

"We must ensure a steady decline (in cases) with (following) measures and vaccination. The last week is a warning for us," he added.

Since December 2019, the pandemic has claimed over 4.68 million lives in at least 192 countries and regions, with almost 228.3 million cases reported worldwide, according to the US' Johns Hopkins University.