ANKARA

Turkey has administered over 116.2 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines since it launched an immunization drive in January, according to official figures released on Saturday.

More than 55.37 million people have been given a first vaccine dose while more than 48.61 million have been fully vaccinated, the Health Ministry said.

Turkey has also given third booster shots to some 11.12 million people.

Meanwhile, the ministry recorded 23,096 new coronavirus cases, 203 related deaths, and 28,632 recoveries over the past day.

As many as 344,163 new virus tests were done in the last 24 hours.

Since December 2019, the pandemic has claimed nearly 5 million lives in at least 192 countries and regions, with more than 246.2 million cases reported worldwide, according to the US' Johns Hopkins University.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​