Over 120.26M coronavirus vaccine shots given in Turkey to date

ANKARA

Turkey has administered over 120.26 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines since it launched an immunization drive this January, according to the latest figures released on Monday.

More than 56.23 million people have gotten a first vaccine dose, while over 50.4 million have been fully vaccinated, the Health Ministry said.

Turkey has also given third booster shots to more than 12.16 million people.

Separately, the ministry recorded 24,317 new coronavirus cases, 189 deaths, and 23,273 recoveries from the virus over the past day.

As many as 358,816 virus tests were done in the last 24 hours, the data showed.

On Saturday, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said no cases of the omicron variant, recently detected in South Africa, had been found in Turkey, adding that the delta variant is still the dominant strain in the country.

Last week, South African scientists announced that they had discovered the omicron variant, which has several mutations that may carry the risk of reinfection. Cases of the same variant have since been found in a number of Western countries.

On Friday, the World Health Organization declared the strain a "variant of concern," naming it omicron.

Since December 2019, the pandemic has claimed nearly 5.2 million lives in at least 192 countries and regions, with more than 261.65 million cases reported worldwide, according to the US-based Johns Hopkins University.