Turkey boosts COVID-19 weekly vaccine drive to 7 million doses
Amid a COVID-19 surge that has seen over 20,000 daily cases, Turkey ramped up vaccination efforts, administering at least 7 million doses last week as authorities plan restrictions for the unvaccinated
AS CORONAVIRUS cases climb, Turkey has managed to increase the number of doses administered against the deadly virus. Last week, more than 7.2 million doses were administered according to the figures by the Health Ministry, roughly one million doses a day. Overall, the number of doses delivered since the beginning of the vaccination campaign in January has exceeded 73.5 million doses.
The vaccination, along with breaking the chain of infections by adhering to measures, is essential to stop the pandemic according to officials. After a normalization process lifted most restrictions, including curfews, on July 1, the country has seen a steady rise in the number of daily cases. The latest figures show they are around 20,000 now, with daily fatalities nearing 100. Authorities have repeatedly called on the public to get vaccinated as soon as possible and deployed mobile crews to persuade people who did not have their jabs yet in cities and towns with a low rate of vaccinations. More than 20 million people are still unvaccinated in the vaccination drive, which gained momentum with age eligibility for jabs lowered to 18 earlier this summer.
Professor Sema Turan, a member of the Health Ministry’s Coronavirus Scientific Advisory Board, says the public should not neglect the vaccination calendar. “Having one dose does not provide
efficiency. Those without second doses are still at risk of infection,” she warns.
Turan assured the public hesitating to get vaccinated that the impact of the disease is “more than six times higher” on the human body than any severe side effect from vaccines. Turan told Demirören News Agency (DHA) yesterday that people should also adhere to personal protection
measures such as protective masks and social distancing. “If people do not heed the warnings, we will see more patients in the coming days. Highly infectious variants in other countries also take hold in our country and we will likely continue seeing more cases,” she warned.
The government is pondering potential new measures to rein in the rise in daily case numbers. A report in the Hürriyet newspaper says the government is planning a new roadmap in fighting the pandemic for autumn, a season when cases are expected to increase further with more people spending time indoors. The report says authorities do not plan on imposing curfews and other restrictions again but are considering “affirmative action” for those who are vaccinated. Unvaccinated people will be asked to undergo polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests every week. Earlier, media reports had claimed that the government was planning to impose restrictions on certain venues, like cinemas, concert halls and other crowded places for the unvaccinated.