CoronaVac

Turkey administered more than 16.4 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines in June alone, accounting for more than a third of all jabs given since the country's inoculation drive was rolled out in mid-January.

To date, nearly 15 million people have been fully vaccinated while over 31 million people have received their first doses of the coronavirus jab.

Turkey on June 23 lowered the COVID-19 vaccination eligibility age to 18, with appointments to be scheduled as of Friday, the country's health minister said.

Addressing a news conference after a meeting of the Coronavirus Scientific Advisory Board, Fahrettin Koca said Turkey aims to vaccinate 55 million people with at least one shot by mid-July.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said on June 1 it has approved a COVID-19 vaccine made by Sinovac Biotech for emergency use listing, paving the way for a second Chinese shot to be used in poor countries.

Turkey has administered over 27 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine since the launch of a mass vaccination campaign on Jan. 14, according to official figures.

As of May 22, more than 15.87 million people have received their first doses, while over 11.87 million have been fully vaccinated, according to the Health Ministry data.

Turkey is expanding the scope of its vaccination program against COVID-19 by starting to inoculate spouses of health care professionals, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca has announced.

"We are moving to a new phase in the vaccination program. Spouses of health care workers will be able to make an appointment for the virus jab starting May 13," Koca wrote on Twitter on May 12.

Sinovac, the Chinese producer of a COVID-19 vaccine, has provided a license to Turkey to manufacturing the jabs.

The company's CEO Yin Weidong said Turkey was among five countries given a production license for the vaccine, along with Indonesia, Brazil, Malaysia, and Egypt, according to Bloomberg.

The streets are crowded, the shopping centres busy and the traffic heavy.

Some rush to the main bus terminal to get out of Istanbul, while others are trying to stockpile alcohol amid news of a "booze ban".

This is the mood as Turkey prepares to enter its first full lockdown of the pandemic, to curb a surge in infections and deaths.

Turkey has been ramping up efforts to vaccinate its population under the inoculation program which was rolled out on Jan. 14.

To date, some 16.8 million doses of vaccines against COVID-19 have been administered. More than 9.6 million people have received the first dose of the jab while over 7.1 million people have received both doses.

The first doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine were administered in Turkey's capital Ankara on April 2. 

Turkey has so far received 2.8 million doses of the vaccine, which was developed by second-generation Turkish immigrants in Germany.

The total is set to reach 4.5 million in the coming weeks, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca told reporters in parliament on Tuesday.

More transmittable virus variants are now accounting for 80 percent of all COVID-19 cases across Turkey, which has been experiencing a significant surge in the number of infections over the past weeks.

The rate is around 70 percent for Istanbul, the country's largest city by population, which was once the epicenter of the outbreak in Turkey.