UPDATE - Over 120.5M coronavirus vaccine shots given in Turkey to date

UPDATES WITH REMARKS FROM HEALTH MINISTER

By Busra Nur Cakmak, Dilan Pamuk and Iclal Turan

ANKARA (AA) – Turkey has administered more than 120.51 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines since it launched an immunization drive in January, according to the latest figures released on Wednesday.

More than 56.28 million people have gotten a first vaccine dose, while over 50.5 million have been fully vaccinated, the Health Ministry said.

Turkey has also given third booster shots to more than 12.23 million people.

Separately, the ministry recorded 22,556 new coronavirus cases, 196 deaths, and 24,113 recoveries from the virus over the past day.

As many as 355,252 virus tests were done in the last 24 hours, the data showed.

No omicron variant has been detected in Turkey so far, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said following the virtual meeting of the Coronavirus Scientific Advisory Board.

“Preliminary data shows that the omicron variant spreads faster but there is no evidence whether it causes more severe illness or not. Although mutations are expected for RNA viruses, both the strengthening and extinction of the virus occur with mutations. Hopefully, this mutation is a sign that the virus will disappear and never return,” he said.

Regarding the efficacy of vaccines against the new variant, Koca said new studies and real-life data reveal that the use of mixed vaccine schedules provides better protection.

Turkey offers Sinovac’s inactive shot and BioNTech/Pfizer mRNA vaccine. People who got vaccinated with two doses of Sinovac can get BioNTech/Pfizer as a booster shot.

Last week, South African scientists announced that they had discovered the omicron variant, which has several mutations that may carry the risk of reinfection. Cases of the same variant have since been found in several Western countries.

On Friday, the World Health Organization declared the novel strain a "variant of concern," naming it omicron.

Since December 2019, the pandemic has claimed over 5.22 million lives in at least 192 countries and regions, with more than 268 million cases reported worldwide, according to the US-based Johns Hopkins University.