Turkey administers nearly 828,000 COVID-19 vaccine shots in 24 hours

Turkey administered a total of 827,975 COVID-19 vaccine shots over the past day, according to official figures released on Friday.

The country has administered over 57 million vaccine doses since it launched a mass vaccination campaign in January, according to the Health Ministry.

More than 37.45 million people have received their first doses, while over 16.77 million got their second does.

Moreover, 2.7 million people received their third doses.

To date, 60.35% of the country's adult population has received at least one vaccine dose.

The ministry also confirmed 5,670 new coronavirus infections and 59 related deaths in the last 24 hours, while as many as 5,126 more patients recovered.

In a Twitter post, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca urged people to get vaccinated at the earliest.

"The number of cases has started to increase in provinces where the vaccination rate is low," he warned.

Amid a nationwide fall in virus cases and an expedited inoculation drive, Turkey has entered a new normalization phase, lifting almost all virus-related restrictions.

However, seeking to limit the spread of the coronavirus Delta variant, it has suspended flights from Bangladesh, Brazil, South Africa, India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka.

Meanwhile, passengers from the UK, Iran, Egypt, and Singapore are required to have a negative COVID-19 test result taken within 72 hours prior to their flight.