Turkey ramps up vaccination to realise herd immunity before autumn

Ankara, July 1 (SocialNews.XYZ) Turkey has ramped up its vaccination efforts against Covid-19 by expanding the mobile healthcare vaccination teams in hopes of realising herd immunity before autumn.

Health Minister Fahrettin Koca announced that on-site vaccination spots began to cover train and bus stations across the country, Xinhua news agency.

The on-site spots previously included shopping malls, municipalities, and business centres.

To achieve at least a 75 per cent vaccination rate and gain herd immunity, Turkey has launched an "aggressive vaccination campaign" for the summer months, the Hurriyet daily reported on Wednesday.

According to the report, health authorities have formed more mobile vaccination teams to inoculate rural workers, vacationers, and workers in tourist attraction areas in the Aegean and Mediterranean coasts.

"It is a very important step in terms of ensuring herd immunity by September," Bulent Ertugrul, an expert on infectious diseases and clinical microbiology in Reyap Hospital in Istanbul, told Xinhua.

So far, the number of people who received two Covid-19 vaccine doses has exceeded 15 million, and those who took the first shot has reached 49.5 million, according to the Health Ministry.

The total number of vaccine doses administered in the country currently stood at 42,613,378.

"One out of every four people has been fully vaccinated," Koca said.

The Minister also warned that the COVID-19 cases of Delta variant are on the rise in the country as the number of the infected has now increased to 244 in 26 provinces from 138 in 16 provinces last week.

Turkey has so far reported a total of 5,420,156 confirmed cases and 49,687 deaths.

Source: IANS