Turkey passes 2-million mark in COVID-19 vaccinations

ISTANBUL

The number of people who have received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine has crossed the 2-million mark in Turkey.

The country, with a population of 83 million, rolled out its inoculation program on Jan. 17. Mostly health care professionals and the elderly have been administered the jab which Turkey secured from the Chinese firm Sinovac.

Even though it launched its vaccination drive later than some other countries, Turkey is now among the top 10 countries in the world in terms of the population vaccinated.

The Chinese vaccine CoronaVac is administered in two doses, 28 days apart.

Last week, Turkey received the second shipment of a second batch of 3.5 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccines.

A total of 10 million doses of the vaccine were delivered in the second batch.

The first batch of the coronavirus vaccines consisted of three million doses.

Turkey signed a deal with the Chinese drug maker to buy 50 million doses to vaccinate 25 million people.

A survey conducted by polling company Ipsos found that the number of people willing to take shot has risen to its highest-level last month.

Some 53 percent of the polled said they will get vaccinated, according to the study, which was carried out between Jan. 23 and Jan. 27, versus 43 percent in late November 2020 and 44 percent in late December 2020.

The number of people, who said they will not get vaccinated, declined to 22 percent in the last survey from 24 percent in the study conducted in December 2020.

Despite a decline from the previous month’s 32 percent, nearly 25 percent of the public is still undecided about getting the shot, the survey found.

Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said last week that the U.K variant of the coronavirus had been detected in 17 provinces, infecting at least 128 people across the country.

As part of the measures to stop the spread of the virus, weeknight curfews and full lockdowns on weekends have been in place since December 2020.

The public mostly complied with the restrictions, however, 31,000 people violated the curfews and the lockdown between Jan. 25 and Feb. 1, the Interior Ministry said on Feb. 1.