Nearly 30M vaccine shots administered in Turkey to date

Turkey has so far administered over 29.5 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines since it launched a mass vaccination campaign in mid-January, according to official figures released on Wednesday.

More than 16.8 million people have received their first doses, while over 12.6 million have been fully vaccinated, the Health Ministry's count showed.

The official data also confirmed 7,181 new coronavirus cases, including 586 symptomatic patients, across the country in the last 24 hours. The number of new cases on Tuesday was 7,112.

Turkey's overall case tally is now over 5.26 million, while the nationwide death toll has reached 47,768 with 112 new fatalities.

As many as 7,372 more patients won the battle against the virus, raising the total number of recoveries past 5.13 million.

Over 54.5 million coronavirus tests have been done to date.

The latest figures put the tally of COVID-19 patients in critical condition at 1,213, down by 28 from Tuesday's count.

As of next Monday, all teachers in Turkey will be able to get vaccinated without any age limit, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca announced on Twitter.

Turkey is imposing a curfew from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m on weekdays and Saturdays, and a full lockdown in Sundays till July.

Since December 2019, the pandemic has claimed over 3.57 million lives in 192 countries and regions, with more than 171.2 million cases reported worldwide, according to the US-based Johns Hopkins University.