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Turkey launches new round of COVID-19 vaccine drive

Turkey launches new round of COVID-19 vaccine drive

More than 2.8 million people in Turkey have now received the vaccine as part of the drive, and health care workers, who were first to receive jabs last month, started receiving the second dose of CoronaVac on Thursday. The inactive vaccine developed by China’s Sinovac is the only one available in the country, which plans to receive its first doses of the messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine developed by Pfizer-BioNTech later this month.

While health care workers received their second jabs, people at the age of 70 and above are being administered their first shots starting Thursday. On Friday, people at the age of 65 or above will receive their first shots. The country’s oldest citizens were vaccinated with their first jabs shortly after the first doses were administered to health care workers. After completing the vaccination of senior citizens, the country will move to age-independent vaccination in the next phase of the plan. These people include soldiers, police officers, teachers and people working in sectors critical for daily life, from logistics to the food sector. Inoculation is also planned this weekend for members of the Cabinet, in a bid to set an example for the public. Vaccine skeptics and anti-vaxxers thrive on social media, looking to deter inoculation, though surveys show a large majority of people are willing to be vaccinated.

Turkey received its first shipment of COVID-19 vaccines on Dec. 30 and gave them an emergency usage approval on Jan. 13, one day before administering them to health care workers. Health Minister Fahrettin Koca, members of the ministry’s Coronavirus Scientific Advisory Board and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan were also vaccinated with the first dose. Erdoğan announced on his Telegram account Thursday that he had his second jab. Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli also had his second dose administered. After health care workers, nursing home residents and staff were inoculated.