There are deals for 270 million vaccine doses, but no vaccines

* Photo: Nadire Mater - bianet

Click to read the article in Turkish

In a message that he shared on his social media account on Saturday (May 22), Turkey's Minister of Health Fahrettin Koca said that the country has made deals to receive 100 million doses of SinoVac, 120 million doses of Pfizer-BioNTech and 50 million doses of Sputnik vaccines. He noted that 270 million doses of the vaccine were more than three times the population.

However, even though Health Minister Koca is "constantly talking about the vaccine deals and giving dates about the future of vaccination" in Turkey, the new groups cannot be vaccinated with the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine as there is still a shortage of vaccines.

For a very long time now, the Family Health Centers can vaccinate only the citizens who are to receive the second dose of the vaccine. Only the City Hospitals and public hospitals give the jabs of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine (due to the requirements to store and preserve it).

Only 11.9 million have received the 2nd jab

As of May 24 at 6.30 in the morning, 27,869,479 coronavirus vaccine jabs have been administered in Turkey in total, according to the Health Ministry data. While 15,953,432 people have received the first dose, only 11,916,047 people have received the second dose.

In other words, only 14 percent of the population is now immune to the disease as they have received both doses. However, at least 60 percent of the population must be vaccinated for social immunization.

On the other side, Heath Minister Koca urged people to "trust this power" in unveiling the vaccine deals. But, in Turkey, where an adequate number of people cannot be vaccinated despite such claims, over 200 people lose their lives due to the novel coronavirus everyday.

In fact, for the first time after weeks, Turkey's daily death toll dropped below 200 yesterday (May 23), when the Health Ministry reported 197 COVID-19 deaths and 7,839 cases in the last 24 hours. (RT/SD)