Turkey has administered over 80.3M coronavirus vaccine shots so far

UPDATES WITH NUMBER OF VACCINES, COVID-19 FIGURES; EDITS THROUGHOUT

By Gozde Bayar, Jeyhun Aliyev and Handan Kazanci

ANKARA/ISTANBUL (AA) - Turkey has administered over 80.3 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines since it launched a mass vaccination campaign in January, according to official figures released on Wednesday.

The country continues its intensive vaccination campaign to curb the spread of the coronavirus, as everyone 16 and over is eligible for vaccine shots.

According to the Health Ministry, over 42.9 million people have gotten their first doses, while more than 31.1 million are now fully vaccinated.

Turkey is also administering third COVID-19 vaccine booster shots, and over 6.1 million such doses have been given.

To date, 69.19% of the country's adult population has received at least one dose of the two-step vaccines.

Earlier, Fahrettin Koca said on Twitter that more than 50% of the population aged 18 and over have been fully vaccinated.

The ministry also confirmed 27,356 new infections and 128 coronavirus-related deaths in the last 24 hours, while as many as 16,363 more patients recovered.

Turkey entered a new normalization phase on July 1 amid a nationwide drop in cases and an expedited vaccination drive, lifting almost all virus-related restrictions.

But seeking to limit the spread of the virus' Delta variant, it has suspended flights from Bangladesh, Brazil, South Africa, India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka.

Meanwhile, passengers from the UK, Iran, Egypt, and Singapore are required to have a negative COVID-19 test result taken within the last 72 hours.

Since December 2019, the pandemic has claimed over 4.31 million lives in 192 countries and regions, with some 204.18 million cases reported worldwide, according to US-based Johns Hopkins University.