Daily death toll from virus on the rise despite vaccinations

ISTANBUL

The daily death toll from COVID-19 continues to rise in Turkey, even though the country has ramped up its vaccination drive.

Around 1 million doses of the coronavirus jabs have been administered daily over the past couple of weeks, but, the death toll keeps rising.

Data from the Health Ministry show that the fatalities have been increasing gradually since the start of August, climbing to 183 on Aug. 17, which marked the highest figure since May 23.

“If we do not act in a controlled manner and ignore the [anti-virus] measures, we will continue to suffer losses. Let’s get vaccinated,” Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on Twitter.

Experts have repeatedly said that nearly all those, who are hospitalized or being treated in intensive care units (ICU), are unvaccinated.

They also noted that more and more young people are admitted to hospitals due to the coronavirus, which they believe is due to the fact that young people are behaving rather more complacent and ignoring calls for getting the virus shot.

Turkey has administered more than 86 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine since it rolled out the vaccination program in mid-January.

Some 45 million people have been given the first dose of the jab, which corresponds to over 72 percent of the population aged 18 and above.

More than 34 million people, some 55 percent of the adult population, have been fully vaccinated while another 7 million have received their fourth doses.

As the vaccination drive has gained momentum, the number of provinces, which are considered low-risk provinces, has increased.

There are more than 30 such provinces, where at least 75 percent of the residents have been given the first dose of the vaccine.

This week, Turkey decided to allow people who were inoculated with Sinovac’s coronavirus vaccine to take an additional Pfizer/BioNTech dose to help ease travel to countries that have not approved the Chinese shot.

Koca said that the decision to offer the fourth dose is not related to health concerns.

“This is a new arrangement designed specifically to comply with the rules of the countries that require two doses of mRNA jabs,” he explained.

Turkey has been using both the Chinese and Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines in its inoculation program.

The ministry also said the vaccination program would be widened to cover people over 15 and children over 12 with chronic illnesses.

Turkey is planning to resume face-to-face education from Sept. 6 onward.