Turkey lowers vaccine eligibility age, receives more doses of Sinovac's vaccine

ANKARA

Turkey has lowered the COVID-19 vaccination eligibility age to 30, the health minister announced on June 19.

“The age limit for vaccine appointments has been reduced to 30. People over 30 years old can make an appointment as of tomorrow,” Fahrettin Koca wrote on Twitter.

Over 40.88 million doses of coronavirus vaccines have been administered since the country launched a mass vaccination campaign in mid-January, according to the Health Ministry.

More than 26.55 million people have received their first doses, while over 14.33 million have been fully vaccinated.

Meanwhile, Turkey has received 5 million more doses of the COVID-19 vaccine developed by China's Sinovac, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported on June 19.

Turkey's vaccination program has accelerated this week, with more than 1 million injections a day being administered since June 14.

Ankara administers the vaccines developed by Sinovac, as well as by Pfizer and BioNtech. Turkey's health ministry had also granted an emergency use authorization for Russia's Sputnik V.