Thousands of people will receive the second jabs of the coronavirus vaccine this week as Turkey plans to launch the new inoculation drive Thursday. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca and Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Chairperson Devlet Bahçeli, who received first shots last month, will join health care workers in receiving second shots.
In the meantime, the country plans to roll out the first shots for citizens 65 and above in the next stage of the vaccination drive soon. A new batch of CoronaVac, the inactive vaccine imported from China and currently the only one available in the country, awaits approval for the start of the second stage.
Health care workers were the first to receive jabs from CoronaVac on Jan.14. Today, the number of people injected with the first dose stands at more than 2.6 million.
The vaccine had received emergency usage approval one day before the start of the vaccination drive and two weeks after the arrival of the first shipment of jabs from China. Koca and his ministry’s Coronavirus Scientific Advisory Board were the first to get jabs and hours later, Erdoğan joined them to set an example for the public.
Under the Health Ministry’s vaccination plan, health care workers who remain at the frontline against the pandemic were prioritized for the shots. On Jan. 19, Turkey started vaccinating elderly people residing in nursing homes. The inoculation gradually expanded to cover elderly people of various ages, with nonagenarians becoming the first to be vaccinated. Currently, people 75 and above are eligible for vaccinations.
