ANKARA, TURKEY
Turkey has administered over 28.23 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines since the launch of a mass vaccination campaign in mid-January, with as many as 170,000 given on Tuesday, according to official figures.
As of Tuesday, more than 16.16 million people have received their first doses, while over 12 million have been fully vaccinated, said the Health Ministry count.
The ministry also confirmed 9,375 new coronavirus cases, including 693 symptomatic patients, across the country in the last 24 hours.
Turkey’s overall case tally is now over 5.2 million, while the nationwide death toll has reached 46,621 with 175 fatalities over the past day.
As many as 11,192 more patients won the battle against the virus, raising the total number of recoveries past 5.04 million.
Over 52.81 million coronavirus tests have been done to date.
The latest figures put the number of COVID-19 patients in critical condition at 1,667.
Local, regional figures
Health Minister Fahrettin Koca also released the latest weekly infection rates across the country’s various regions.
Sharing the data for May 15-21 on Twitter, Fahrettin Koca touted the country’s falling case numbers.
“The biggest drops in the number of cases per 100,000 people were seen in Erzincan, Istanbul, Karabuk, Agri, and Karaman. The positive course continues. We will succeed by striving together,” Koca said on Twitter.
In Turkey’s largest cities, the number of cases per 100,000 people was 123 in the metropolis of Istanbul – home to nearly one-fifth of Turkey’s population – and also 123 in the capital Ankara and 72 in Izmir on the Aegean.
The provinces of Hatay, Osmaniye and Adana had the lowest COVID-19 infections per 100,000 people.
Turkey on May 17 started a gradual normalization process after a 17-day lockdown that brought infections in the country down significantly.
Until June 1, the country has weeknight curfews from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m., while weekends are under full lockdown.
Since December 2019, the pandemic has claimed over 3.4 million lives in 192 countries and regions, with more than 167.4 million cases reported worldwide, according to the US-based Johns Hopkins University.
