Turkey to start vaccinating teenagers aged 15 and up

ANKARA

Turkey on Monday expanded its vaccination campaign to include minors at least 15 years old, as well as those at least 12 years old who suffer from chronic disease.

Healthcare workers and other priority groups will also be able to receive their fourth vaccine doses, the Health Ministry announced in a series of new decisions.

In addition, as some countries require two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for entry, people who have received two doses of the Chinese Sinovac and one dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech jab, will be able to get a second dose of the latter vaccine as a fourth dose.

Under the new decisions, people who test positive for the coronavirus can get vaccinated a month later. This time period had previously been three months.

Turkey has administered over 83.87 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines since it launched a mass vaccination campaign in January, according to official figures released on Monday.

As of Sunday, the country also confirmed 18,847 new infections and 154 coronavirus-related deaths in the last 24 hours, while as many as 14,426 more patients recovered.Daskyleion

It has entered a normalization phase in July amid a nationwide fall in virus cases and an expedited vaccination drive, lifting almost all virus-related restrictions.

*Writing by Seda Sevencan