Turkey's two-dose COVID-19 vaccination rate exceeds 80 pct

ANKARA - The rate of two-dose COVID-19 vaccination among people aged 18 and older has reached 80.5 percent in Turkey, the Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on Saturday.

The number of two-dose vaccinated people exceeded 50 million, or 60 percent of the total population in Turkey, Koca tweeted, but warned that this figure is not enough to cope with the pandemic.

Turkey on Saturday reported 23,347 new COVID-19 cases, raising its tally of infections to 8,550,377, the health ministry said.

The death toll from the virus in Turkey rose by 201 to 74,847, while 29,163 more people recovered in the last 24 hours.

A total of 352,335 tests were conducted over the past day, it said.

Turkey started mass COVID-19 vaccination on Jan. 14 after the authorities approved the emergency use of the Chinese Sinovac vaccine.

More than 56 million people have received their first doses of vaccines, and over 50 million had taken their second doses. Turkey has so far administered 119.27 million doses, including the booster jabs.