Turkey to start vaccinating people over 60

Turkey will begin vaccinating people over 60 and some risk groups as daily infections climb, the country's health minister said on March 27.

Minister Fahrettin Koca announced on Twitter the spouses of people above 60 are also eligible. The risk groups included in this round of vaccinations are people with underlying conditions.

Turkey rolled out its vaccination program in January with CoronaVac by Chinese biopharmaceutical company Sinovac and has administered more than 14.6 million shots.

This week, the country also received approximately 1.4 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine.

As of March 18, the vaccinations of people who are older than 65 and health care workers have been completed, said Koca.

Aged 65 and above constitutes 9.5 percent of the population and was nearly 8 million in 2020, where the country is 66th among 167 countries in the ranking of elderly population ratio, according to Turkey's Statistical Institute (TÜİK).

Turkey is among the most successful countries in saving the lives of the elderly in nursing and care homes, despite having a high number of coronavirus cases.

Thanks to effective measures taken in nursing and care homes, Turkey prevented outbreaks in facilities.

In the countries most affected by the pandemic, around 50 percent and more of all deaths from the virus are from the elderly living in nursing homes, according to Turkey's Director of Services for the Disabled and Elderly.

According to the directorate, in Turkey, less than 10 percent of coronavirus-related deaths occurred in nursing and care homes.

The country started to implement measures in care homes in February 2020 by restricting visits and monitoring temperatures of residents at least four times a day.

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