With current speed, Turkey may need 'more than a year' to administer 100 million vaccine shots

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The Turkish Medical Association has released its monthly family doctors survey for February.

The report stresses that most of the coronavirus vaccination is done at family healthcare centers (FHC) and difficulties for getting an appointment and the problems with the Health Ministry's vaccination app continue.

There are also problems with the procurement of vaccines, noted the TTB. It previously stated that Turkey, a country of 83 million people, would need 120 million vaccine doses in six months to achieve full immunity.

Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on February 25 that Turkey agreed to buy 130 million doses of China's CoronaVac vaccine and the procurement was continuing.

With the current speed, it may take one year for Turkey to administer 100 million doses, said the association.

Each family doctor was able to administer only 12 vaccine doses in a day on average after the vaccination of those over the age of 75 started in late January, the report notes.

Turkey started mass vaccination with health workers in mid-January and continued with people over 85. Currently, teachers and those over 65 are being vaccinated.

A total of 8.7 million people, or more than 10 percent of the country's population, have been vaccinated so far, with nearly 1.8 million people receiving two shots, according to the Health Ministry figures. (AÖ/VK)