(11 Feb 2021) Turkey on Thursday started administering the second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine developed by China's Sinovac company, to health care workers across the country.
It came as Turkey further expanded its vaccination campaign, with people above the age of 70 becoming eligible to receive their first dose of the vaccine.
People above the age of 65 will qualify as of Friday, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca announced this week.
Turkey first began vaccinating doctors, nurses and other health professionals on January 14.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and other politicians were among the first people to receive the vaccination in a bid to set an example.
After a promising start which saw 1.2 million people receive their first doses in one week, the pace of vaccinations has slowed down.
In all, around 2.8 million people received their first shots in the country of 83.6 million.
Turkey has been trying to procure vaccines from multiple sources, but has expressed a preference for inactivated vaccines made with an older and tested technology, such as Sinovac's vaccine.
Koca told reporters following a meeting of the country's scientific advisory council on Wednesday that Turkey aims to vaccinate at least 60 percent of the population.
It has reached an agreement to purchase another 50 million doses of the Sinovac vaccine, bringing the total amount to 100 million doses, he told reporters, but did not however, provide a timeframe for their arrival.
A total of 15 million doses of the vaccine has arrived since December.
Turkey has reported 2.5 million confirmed infections and more than 27,000 deaths since the start of the outbreak in March 2020.

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