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More than 100,000 health care staff in Turkey received the first doses of the Covid-19 vaccine procured from China, the health minister has announced on Twitter.
"As of now, the number of health professionals getting the first doses crossed 100,000," Fahrettin Koca said on Twitter at around 1.40 p.m. local time, sharing a link to the Health Ministry website that counts the people vaccinated live.
"Turkey has a strong infrastructure to carry out a vaccination program," Koca said.
As of 5 p.m., the live count showed that over 230,000 people have been vaccinated.
Three million doses of the vaccine produced by Beijing-based company SinoVac reached Turkey on Dec. 30.
Yesterday, Turkey's official drug and medical equipment body approved the CoronaVac vaccine for emergency use against coronavirus and Minister Koca received the vaccine on live television.
The efficacy rate of CoronaVacThere have been varying figures about the vaccine's efficacy rate among the countries that procured and tested it. The efficacy rate of the vaccine was announced as 65.3 percent by Indonesia. Brazil, another country that bought the vaccine, announced its efficacy as 78 percent at first but later updated it as 50.4 percent. Brazil reportedly tested the vaccine on frontline health workers, who are under the highest risk. The results of an interim analysis by Turkey found in December that the vaccine was 91.25 percent effective. Sinovac says the vaccine is 100 percent effective to prevent moderate and severe infections and 77 percent effective to prevent mild infections. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines, a vaccine has to have an efficacy rate of at least 50 percent. |
Vaccination steps
Previously, the ministry announced that vaccinations in the country will be a four-step procedure.
In the first step, health care workers, people aged 65 and above, and adults living in crowded places such as shelters will be vaccinated.
In the next step, essential workers, people above 50 years of age and those with at least one chronic disease will be vaccinated.
In the third phase, people under 50 with at least one chronic disease, young adults and those who have jobs will be vaccinated.
In the final phase, all the remaining individuals will be vaccinated. (PT/AS/VK)
