Turkey: Number of people vaccinated for COVID tops 1.5M

By Kemal Karadag

ANKARA (AA) - The number of people in Turkey who have received their first dose of a vaccine against the novel coronavirus crossed the 1.5 million mark as of Wednesday, according to official figures.

In week two of Turkey's mass vaccination campaign, in which it is administering CoronaVac jabs purchased from Chinese company SinoVac, immunization efforts are running smoothly, officials say.

According to data from the Turkish Health Ministry, to date over 1.5 million people in Turkey have been vaccinated.

Turkey began its mass COVID-19 vaccination campaign on Jan. 14, starting with healthcare workers along with top officials to encourage public confidence in the vaccines, and then moving to older individuals.

Since last month Turkey has also been implementing curfew on nights and weekends to curb the spread of the virus.

Since it emerged in December 2019, the pandemic has claimed more than 2.15 million lives in 192 countries and regions, according to the US' Johns Hopkins University.

More than 100 million cases and over 55 million recoveries have been reported worldwide.