Turkey vaccinates teachers ahead of reopening schools

Xinhua
25 Feb 2021, 05:44 GMT+10

ANKARA, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- Turkey started Wednesday the vaccination of teachers against COVID-19 as the country is gradually resuming in-person education.

Turkish Education Minister Ziya Selcuk received his first dose in a ceremony held in the Central Anatolia province of Corum.

A list including 1.25 million teachers, who will be on duty for resumed classes, was submitted to the health ministry for vaccination, Selcuk said.

Turkey gradually starts face-to-face schooling, as primary schools in villages opened on Feb. 15 and the rest of the primary classes, along with students in eighth and 12th grades, will resume on March 1.

Turkey on Wednesday confirmed 9,561 new COVID-19 cases, including 660 symptomatic patients, taking the total number of positive cases in the country to 2,665,194.

The death toll from the virus in Turkey rose by 72 to 28,285, while the total recoveries climbed to 2,540,293 after 5,297 more cases recovered in the last 24 hours, according to the Turkish health ministry.

The number of seriously ill patients was 1,200, said the ministry.

Turkey started mass COVID-19 vaccination on Jan. 14 after the authorities approved the emergency use of the Chinese CoronaVac vaccine. More than 6,463,000 people have been vaccinated so far.

Turkey reported its first COVID-19 case on March 11, 2020.

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