* Photo: Anadolu Agency (AA) - Archive
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Turkey's Ministry of Health has responded to the frequently asked questions about the ongoing COVID-19 vaccination campaign in the country.
CLICK - Turkey to start vaccinating citizens over the age of 85
The first batch of 3 million doses of the vaccine developed by China's Sinovac arrived in Turkey on December 30, 2020.
Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said yesterday that COVID-19 vaccinations for people over the age of 85 would start today (January 21).
In the first stage of the vaccination program, over one million citizens, including over 980,000 health care professionals, the elderly and personnel at nursing homes, have been vaccinated so far.
Against this backdrop, the Ministry has answered the 37 most frequently asked questions about the vaccination program in Turkish on the Health Ministry's COVID-19 vaccination information platform.
As compiled by the state-run Anadolu Agency (AA) for international readers, some of these questions and their answers are as follows:
Protection against the virus continues for a while in those who have had COVID-19. Therefore, people who had contracted the infection are not among the groups to be vaccinated.
The protection period of COVID-19 vaccines is not yet known, and additional research is needed for this.
People aged 18 and over will be administered a total of two doses, four weeks apart.
Even after being vaccinated, you could still infect others. For this reason, the rules for wearing masks, social distancing, and hygiene must be followed.
Vaccination is not compulsory in Turkey. For this reason, public awareness regarding vaccines is being carried out by the Health Ministry.
The vaccination stages were determined considering the risk of exposure to infectious disease, severely catching the disease, and transmission.
Health care professionals have the highest risk of exposure to COVID-19.
There is no evidence that vaccines other than the COVID-19 vaccine protect against the pandemic.
At least two weeks after getting the flu or pneumonia vaccine, you can be administered the COVID-19 vaccine.
The level of immunity varies according to the disease and the person. Since the COVID-19 agent SARS-CoV-2 is a new virus, it is not known for how long natural immunity is gained.
No serious side effects have been encountered in clinical studies conducted for COVID-19 vaccines and in current vaccine applications to date. The side effects after vaccination are often mild, such as fatigue, headache, fever, chills, muscle/joint pain, vomiting, diarrhea, along with pain, redness, and swelling in the area of the jab.
People under the age of 18 will not be administered the vaccine. The vaccine will not be administered to people who have tested positive for COVID-19 by PCR test and to people who have been in contact with a COVID-19 case within 10 days before vaccination.
If there is a history of allergy/anaphylaxis against any substance contained in the vaccine, vaccination is not recommended.
People aged 65 and over have a higher risk of contracting COVID-19, hospitalization, or even death. (EKN/SD)