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Turkey rolls out Covid-19 vaccine TurkovacÌýas infections surge due to Omicron

Turkey rolls out Covid-19 vaccine TurkovacÌýas infections surge due to Omicron
TurkovacÌýwas given the green light for emergency use last week as Covid-19 cases surged in Turkey due to the spread of the Omicron variant.
2 min read
30 December, 2021
Turkey logged 36,684 new Covid-19 cases on Wednesday, the highest number of daily infections since April 29 [source: Getty]

began administering its domestically developed vaccineÌýTurkovacÌýat hospitals across the country on Thursday, amid a rapid surge in infections due to the variant.

Turkey has already administered more than 130 million doses of vaccines using shots developed by China's Sinovac and by . It also began administering booster shots.

Turkovac received last week after its launch was beset by delays for months.

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Daily coronavirus cases jumped beyond 30,000 this week for the first time since October.

New infections surged 30 percentÌýon Monday and jumped further to beyond 36,000 on Wednesday, the highest daily figure since April 29.

Health Minister Fahrettin Koca urged citizens to get their booster shots.

Koca met with the country's coronavirus science council Wednesday to discuss the Turkovac rollout and rising infections after receiving a with the domestic vaccine but said no new restrictions were being considered for now.

"The faster spread of the Omicron variant is not causing a change in measures. The importance of personal measures against this variant that spreads faster has significantly increased," Koca said in a statement after the science council meeting.

"Our domestic vaccine Turkovac will begin to be administered at our city hospitals from [Thursday]. It is possible to receive the booster shot with our domestic vaccine. No matter what type of vaccine you received before, you can get your booster vaccine with Turkovac," he added.

has repeatedly said his government would make Turkovac available globally, but Ankara has yet to release detailed information about the vaccine's efficacy rate or results from clinical trials.Ìý

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