17 Aug 2021; MEMO: Turkey will begin to administer a fourth dose of a COVID-19 vaccine for those who received two doses of China's Sinovac inoculation in order to meet European standards which do not recognise the drug.
The fourth dose will be made available for those who have already received two doses of the Sinovac and one dose of the Pzifer/BioNTech jabs, the Health Ministry said yesterday.
It also announced that a new programme to issue vaccines to those over the age of 15 will begin ahead of the start of the new school year.
Turkey has administered 83 million vaccines, mainly China's Coronavac and the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. In the first weeks, it was exclusively using the Chinese vaccine, which has not been approved in some Western countries.
Last July, authorities started giving a third dose to health workers and people aged over 50, as studies showed that the antibodies triggered by Sinovac's vaccine decline after around six months. The country has given third booster shots to over 6.81 million people.
The ministry also said it was starting to inoculate people over 15 and that children over 12 with chronic illnesses would also be eligible.
In Turkey, people who have contracted COVID-19 will be eligible for vaccination a month after recovery, as opposed to the previous period of three months.
