COVID-19 cases continue to rise: Ministry

ANKARA

COVID-19 cases increased to more than 117,000 between July 4-10 from 57,000 in the previous week, the Health Ministry has said in its weekly coronavirus statistics, while people flock to hospitals to get their booster shots.

According to the ministry’s data, 31 COVID-19 patients lost their lives, while more than 61,047 people recovered from the infection between July 4 and 10.

Since the first COVID-19 case was reported in March 2020, the coronavirus has infected more than 15 million people and killed nearly 100,000.

With COVID-19 numbers rising again, the Health Ministry opened up booster shot appointments in an effort to increase dropping numbers of infections.

One of BioNTech, Sinovac or Turkovac vaccines can be chosen for the booster shot, which will be the sixth dose for those aged 65 and over and those in the high-risk groups.

“We strongly recommend that those over 50 and in the high-risk group should get the booster shot if 6 months have passed since their last vaccination.”

“This group should especially protect themselves starting from the [Eid al-Adha] holiday when contact will increase,” said Health Minister Fahrettin Koca on July 8, stating that COVID-19 cases due to the Omicron variant have increased.

“When six months have passed since the last dose, the effect of the vaccine starts to decrease,” said Koca, noting that the virus has started to come to the fore again.

The country launched the vaccinations with the jab developed by the Chinese company Sinovac and then added Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine to its arsenal of vaccines. In December 2021, Türkiye rolled out its domestically developed vaccine Turkovac.