More than 42 pct of adult population vaccinated in Turkey

ISTANBUL

More than 26 million people have been fully vaccinated in Turkey, corresponding to more than 42 percent of the population aged 18 and above, with the total doses of jabs administered nearing 72 million since a mass vaccination campaign that was launched in January, according to official figures.

Turkey has administered more than 1.4 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine shots on July 29, the country’s health minister announced early on July 29.

“Today, 1,405,579 doses of vaccine were administered. Let’s beat that number with new appointments tomorrow morning,” Fahrettin Koca wrote on Twitter.

The country is continuing its intensive vaccination campaign to curb the virus’ spread, as everyone 18 and over is eligible for vaccine shots and more than 40.54 million people have gotten their first dose, while over 26.11 million have received their second jabs as well.

Meanwhile, health professionals made significant warnings by emphasizing the increase in the number of admissions to hospitals and the sharp rise in positivity rates following the PCR tests that were made.

İlker İnanç Balkan, an infectious diseases specialist from Istanbul University, pointed out that people in the risk group with low immunity, such as cancer patients, have been infected with COVID-19 because of their unvaccinated relatives, even though they have been vaccinated.

Balkan pointed out that although most of the patients who applied to hospitals with the suspicion of COVID-19 experienced the symptoms, they were often late in getting the test due to the delusion of air conditioning sickness.

He said that this delusion both delayed the treatment and increased the rate of the virus spread.

“It is necessary to apply to hospitals without delay for both diagnosis and treatment. Otherwise, we will not be able to prevent the transmission of the virus,” the expert noted.

Sait Gönen, dean of Cerrahpaşa Faculty of Medicine, has emphasized that the number of patients who applied to the hospital with the suspicion of COVID-19 increased from 300s to 700s per day.

“The positivity rates in the tests have been hovering between 1 and 2 percent for a long time. But now it is starting to rise rapidly. All of those hospitalized in intensive care are unvaccinated,” Gönen said, adding that there was a significant increase in the number of hospitalized patients.

“However, when we compare the numbers we saw in the increase in cases in previous periods, we observe that the increase in the number of inpatients is less,” he added, noting that this data is a clear indication that the vaccine is effective even though it has not yet established herd immunity.

On Jul 29, Turkey confirmed 22,161 new infections and 60 coronavirus-related deaths over the past day, while as many as 5,463 more patients recovered.