ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkey will begin administering boosters to people who have received two shots of the Pfizer Inc/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on Wednesday.
Turkey has already administered a third dose to more than 11.2 million people who received two doses of the vaccine developed by China’s Sinovac, whose efficacy rate officials believe falls faster.
In a statement after meeting with his science council, Koca said the booster shots for Pfizer/BioNTech recipients would begin on Thursday with the elderly, those with chronic illnesses, health workers and those in other high-risk jobs.
He said 59% of the population had so far received two vaccines doses, adding: “That rate needs to get over 70% to achieve herd immunity.”
Turkey’s daily infection numbers have hovered around 30,000 since mid-September, while the daily death toll, which peaked at 290 in September, remains above 200.
The government has attributed the high infections and death tolls to a low level of vaccinations.
On Wednesday, Turkey logged 29,764 new cases and 246 deaths, according to Health Ministry data.
(Reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu; editing by John Stonestreet)
