Over 28.52M vaccine shots administered in Turkey to date

ANKARA

Turkey has administered over 28.52 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines since the launch of a mass vaccination campaign on Jan. 14, according to official figures.

As of Thursday, more than 16.32 million people have received their first doses, while over 12.19 million have been fully vaccinated, the Health Ministry's count shows.

The ministry also confirmed 8,426 new coronavirus cases, including 673 symptomatic patients, across the country in the last 24 hours. The number of new cases on Wednesday was 8,738.

Turkey's overall case tally is now over 5.22 million, while the nationwide death toll has reached 46,970 with 183 new fatalities, 17 up from a day earlier.

As many as 13,102 more patients won the battle against the virus, up from 12,205 a day earlier, raising the total number of recoveries past 5.07 million.

Over 53.25 million coronavirus tests have been done to date.

The latest figures put the number of COVID-19 patients in critical condition at 1,504, down by 57 from Wednesday’s count.

Turkey started a gradual normalization process on May 17 after a 17-day lockdown that significantly brought infections in the country down.

Until June 1, the country is enforcing weeknight curfews from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m., while weekends are under full lockdown.

Since December 2019, the pandemic has claimed over 3.5 million lives in 192 countries and regions, with more than 168.52 million cases reported worldwide, according to the US-based Johns Hopkins University.