CoronaVac

Turkey is ramping up its vaccination drive against COVID-19 by adding people aged over 60 and some risk groups with underlying conditions to the program, the country's health minister has announced.

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.

Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu and his Chinese counterpart, China's Wang Yi, met in the Turkish capital Ankara on March 24.

After holding a one-on-one meeting with the Chinese foreign minister, Çavuşoğlu said Ankara would like to see Chinese President Xi Jinping visit Turkey and that the two countries take their relations to a level of strategic partnership.

The daily coronavirus cases in Turkey could hit around 20,000 in the next two weeks before the numbers start to decline in May, experts have said.

After the country moved to what officials dub the "controlled normalization" phase, a spike in infections was not unexpected, experts told daily Hürriyet.

The COVID-19 vaccine developed by China's Sinovac Biotech has an efficacy of 83.5 percent based on the final results of Phase III trials, Turkish researchers said on March 3, a downward revision from a preliminary finding of 91.25 percent.

The Netherlands ambassador to Turkey, Marjanne de Kwaasteniet, and her husband have received their first doses of the coronavirus vaccine as part of Turkey's vaccination program.

Ambassador Kwaasteniet, 65, shared a picture of herself receiving the vaccine on her Twitter account.

There is no new coronavirus variant that originated in Turkey, while the rate of infections related to the U.K. strain is rising in the country, the country's health minister said on Feb. 25. 

Turkey is the most successful nation in effectively carrying out its vaccination program, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said, informing that more than 7.5 million doses of the vaccine developed by China's Sinovac Biotech have been given to the Turkish citizens since the start of the campaign in January.

Vaccinations against the COVID-19 in Turkey have proved to be effective, experts have said, noting that fewer people are now applying to hospitals as a result of the inoculations.

Turkey rolled out its massive vaccination program on Jan. 14. Nearly 5.9 million people have been administered the jab since then, mostly health care workers and the elderly.

Turkish doctor Sergan Saraçoğlu faces the twin hurdles of a snowstorm in the mountains and local fears of vaccines as he chases after alarmed villagers with a metal case full of needles.

"She had a positive attitude," the doctor says after finally tracking down a 101-year-old grandmother on his list of the elderly due a coronavirus shot in the southeastern Turkish hamlet of İmamlı.