Some 78 percent of Turkey’s adult population double jabbed

ISTANBUL

Close to 78 percent of Turkey’s population aged 18 and above have been given two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, with the total of jabs administered in the country having exceeded 115 million doses.

More than 48.04 million are now fully vaccinated, data from the Health Ministry showed, while over 55.14 million people, which account for around 89 percent of the adult population, have been given a first vaccine dose since the country rolled out its inoculation program in January.

Additionally, the country has also given third booster shots to some 11 million people.

Health Minister Fahrettin Koca is almost every day taking to social media to urge people, particularly the youth and those who skip their booster doses, to get vaccinated.

“If you have not yet received any [COVID-19 jab] doses or getting the booster shot is not your priority, go and talk to people you know who have been infected. Those who recover from the coronavirus with the help of the vaccine have the most realistic opinion on the disease. Please, get vaccinated,” Koca tweeted on Oct. 23.

The minister also provided the weekly data for the incidence rates in the country’s 81 provinces.

Between Oct. 9 and Oct.15, the number of cases per 100,000 people increased in 46 provinces, including Istanbul and Ankara, from the week ago while the infections declined in 35 others, including İzmir, the country’s third most populous city.

The number of cases per 100,000 people was 292 in Istanbul, up from around 275 in the week of Oct.2-Oct.8, while Ankara saw infections rise to 374 from 356. In İzmir, however, the number of cases inched down to around 48 from 49.

The southeastern province of Şırnak had the lowest number of COVID-19 infections per 100,000 people at 34 and the province of Kastamonu in the Black Sea region recorded the highest number of cases at 737.

Koca previously said that the health system is not yet overwhelmed by the spike in cases the country has been experiencing over the past four, five weeks as most of the new cases are among young people.

“Data pertaining to the period when daily cases were between 24,000 and 30,000 showed that on average 4.2 patients per 1,000 cases needed to be hospitalized while severe cases accounted for 6.6 per 1,000,” the minister wrote on Twitter on Oct. 23.

He also noted that the young people under the age 19 comprised 35.4 percent of all new cases, with the corresponding rate for the children aged between 10 and 14 was 16.2 percent.