UPDATE - Turkey to start administering 3rd dose of COVID-19 vaccine as of Thursday

ADDS COMMENTS BY HEALTH MINISTER

By Ali Murat Alhas

ANKARA (AA) - People above the age of 50 as well as health care staff across Turkey will be able to make appointments as of Thursday to receive their third dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, Health Ministry Fahrettin Koca said on Wednesday.

Following the meeting of the country’s Coronavirus Scientific Advisory Board, Koca highlighted the significance of vaccination to achieving the national immunization against the COVID-19.

Koca said that people above the age of 50 and medical staff would be eligible to make appointments to receive the third dose of their choice.

Koca said authorities have mobilized to bring vaccines to Turkey in a planned and comfortable fashion and the country was one of the top counties with a vaccination pace of more than 1 million doses registered in a single day.

Stressing that Turkey has registered about 50 million doses, he said the more that people become vaccinated, the faster the coronavirus threat would be eliminated and the future looked bright.

He noted that the virus could easily mutate, however, available vaccines seemed to have a protective effect to some extent and vaccination would be of great importance.

Asked about vaccination planning for those who already recovered from COVID-19, Koca said the previous approach was to offer vaccination six months following the recovery, however, patients could now have the vaccine after three months.

He also said those who received the first jab of the BioNTech vaccine would be able to get their second dose after four months.