Turkey lowers COVID-19 vaccine eligibility age to 30

Turkey has lowered the COVID-19 vaccination eligibility age to 30, the health minister announced on Saturday.

"The age limit for vaccine appointments has been reduced to 30. People over 30 years old can make an appointment as of tomorrow," Fahrettin Koca wrote on Twitter.

Over 40.88 million doses of coronavirus vaccines have been administered since the country launched a mass vaccination campaign in mid-January, according to the Health Ministry.

More than 26.55 million people have received their first doses, while over 14.33 million have been fully vaccinated.

Meanwhile, the ministry also confirmed 5,480 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, including 494 symptomatic patients. The number of new cases on Friday was 5,575.

Turkey's overall case tally is now over 5.36 million, while the nationwide death toll has reached 49,122 with 51 new fatalities.

As many as 4,195 more patients won the battle against the virus, raising the total number of recoveries past 5.22 million.

Over 58.33 million coronavirus tests have been carried out to date.

The latest figures put the number of COVID-19 patients in critical condition at 829.

To contain the spread of the virus, Turkey currently has in place a nighttime curfew (10 p.m. to 5 a.m.) from Monday to Saturday, and a full lockdown on Sundays.

Since December 2019, the pandemic has claimed over 3.85 million lives in 192 countries and regions, with more than 177.9 million cases reported worldwide, according to the US' Johns Hopkins University.