285 thousand healthcare workers vaccinated with CoronaVac

* Photo: Anadolu Agency (AA)

Click to read the article in Turkish / Kurdish

Turkey started the mass vaccination against the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) with healthcare personnel early Thursday (January 14).

Since then, 285 thousand health workers have been vaccinated against the virus by the CoronaVac vaccine of China-based Sinovac company.

After the first batch of 3 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine developed by China's SinoVac Biotech arrived in Turkey on December 30, 2020, the vaccines were examined and the country's medical equipment body approved CoronaVac for emergency use against the virus.

Accordingly, on January 13, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca became the first person in the country to receive the SinoVac vaccine after this approval of the medical equipment body. Following the minister, the members of the Coronavirus Scientific Advisory Board were vaccinated as well.

Ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) Chair and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan also got the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine following the Central Executive Board meeting yesterday.

CLICK - President Erdoğan receives Covid vaccine

According to data from the Health Ministry, Turkey has 1.1 million health workers who will be vaccinated within a month. Two doses of the vaccine will be administered 28 days apart. Those who recovered from the disease will not be vaccinated in four to six months after their recovery.

'Turkey to transparently continue vaccination'

On the other side, Ömer Çelik, the Spokesperson for the AKP, addressed the reporters following the party's Central Executive Board meeting.

As reported by the state-run Anadolu Agency (AA), talking about the current issues on the agenda, Çelik also mentioned the ongoing vaccination.

"Now the vaccination process has transparently begun," said Spokesperson Ömer Çelik, adding that "Turkey would transparently carry out a COVID-19 vaccination process by including everyone in the country."

"This process will continue in a way that everyone will be vaccinated through assigned codes, ensuring that everyone has their own vaccines," he said. Çelik also indicated that the vaccination would help get rid of negativities caused by the pandemic and reduce the number of fatalities.

As of Thursday, Turkey registered a total of 23,495 deaths, over 2.23 million recoveries and more than 2.36 million confirmed cases in the country. Turkey has also been implementing curfews on both weeknights and weekends since last month as part of efforts to curb the spread of the virus.

'It is a matter of national sovereignty'

Further in his speech, Çelik also talked about the recent debates on the new privacy terms of WhatsApp. Regarding WhatsApp's recent decision, AKP's Ömer Çelik said that data sovereignty, the issue with whom our data is shared, is a matter of national sovereignty.

CLICK - The state on the one side, Facebook on the other

"No one can share the data of citizens of the Republic of Turkey without their consent," Çelik noted, adding that it was clear that this should be subject to legal regulation as it is a human rights issue.

Turkey's Personal Data Protection Authority on Tuesday launched an investigation into WhatsApp over its new data-sharing rules.

Last week, WhatsApp forced many users to agree to new privacy rules for sharing personal data with Facebook companies.

The authority suspended the data sharing, even if users accepted the rules, due to the potential for irreparable losses, until the conclusion of the investigation. In this context, Facebook also must suspend data sharing and announce its move to all users, the statement said. (TP/SD)