‘Those vaccinated with 3 doses account for less than 2 percent of all cases’

* Photo - News: Anadolu Agency (AA)

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The Coronavirus Scientific Advisory Board of the Health Ministry had a virtual meeting yesterday afternoon (September 8).

Health Minister Fahrettin Koca has released a written statement on his Twitter account after the meeting. The COVID-19 booster shot increases protection against the disease, the Minister has underlined.

Fahrettin Koca has indicated that the people who have received three shots account for less than 2 percent of overall coronavirus cases in Turkey.

Nearly 90 percent of active cases in hospitals are people who have not been vaccinated or who have received only one jab, Fahrettin Koca has stated, adding that only 10 percent of fully vaccinated people are currently receiving hospital treatment in the country.

It is also expected that those who had received two doses of mRNA vaccines - Pfizer/BioNTech's vaccine in the case of Turkey - would need a booster shot 5-6 months after they got the second dose, he said.

"About 6 million of our citizens are eligible to receive their booster shots," Koca has said, calling on them to "not waste time" to receive their jabs.

Turkey has administered over 99.64 million coronavirus vaccine shots since the country launched an immunization campaign in January, according to official figures released on Wednesday.

Over 50.68 million people in Turkey have gotten their first doses, while more than 39.33 million are fully vaccinated, the Ministry has said.

The data has shown that 81.6 percent of the country's adult population has received at least one dose of a two-shot vaccine.

Turkey has also given third shots to over 9.2 million people.

The ministry also reported 23,914 new coronavirus cases, while as many as 262 more people died of the disease in the past 24 hours.

Earlier this week, Health Minister Koca announced that the first cases of COVID-19 Mu variant were seen in Turkey.

First identified in Colombia this January, the Mu strain of coronavirus has been found in 39 countries so far and was recently classified as a "variant of interest" by the World Health Organization (WHO).

The variant accounted for less than 0.1 percent of infections worldwide, but its prevalence in Colombia and Ecuador has been rising and stood at 39 percent and 13 percent, respectively, by the end of August.

Since December 2019, the pandemic has claimed over 4.59 million lives in 192 countries and regions, with more than 222.13 million cases reported worldwide, according to the US' Johns Hopkins University. (KÖ/SD)