Vaccination proves effective in Turkey, say experts

ISTANBUL

Vaccinations against the COVID-19 in Turkey have proved to be effective, experts have said, noting that fewer people are now applying to hospitals as a result of the inoculations.

Turkey rolled out its massive vaccination program on Jan. 14. Nearly 5.9 million people have been administered the jab since then, mostly health care workers and the elderly.

Data from the Health Ministry show that over 5 million people have received the first dose of the vaccine Coronovac, developed by the Chinese pharmaceuticals company Sinovac while nearly 864,000 people got the second dose of the jab.

“The number of people applying to hospitals declined over the past month, we think this was due to the vaccinations and the virus-related restrictions in place,” Prof. Dr. Sema Kultufan Turan from the Health Ministry’s Science Board told daily Hurriyet.

The vaccine is effective and yielding positive results, she said.

According to Professor Levent Akın, another member of the board, the studies have provided significant information that the Sinovac injection is working.

“Turkey will be able to breathe a sigh of relief when the number of people inoculated against the coronavirus exceeds 15 million to 20 million,” Akın said.

Meanwhile, the Health Ministry has changed the vaccination appointment system in the face of the crowding occurred at the family health clinics, where the jab is administered to people.

Earlier, the ministry decided that appointments for the afternoon sessions should be scheduled for every five minutes instead of 10 minutes.

However, the new scheme caused some complications with the scenes of people packing at the health clinics which doctors warned that pose risks.

People formed long queues to get the COVID-19 shot at some clinics.

“Some of those health centers do not have a waiting room and people are waiting in a closed area. We are trying to protect people against COVID-19, but the virus could fast spread in such a crowded place,” Hakan Karabulut, a doctor at a family health center in Istanbul’s Küçükçekmece district, told daily Milliyet.

In the face of complaints from health staff, the ministry switched back to the old system of scheduling the appointments for every 10 minutes.