ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkey vaccinated more than 600,000 people in the first two days of administering COVID-19 injections developed by Sinovac of China, according to data from the Ministry of Health released on Friday, one of the fastest implementations worldwide .
Ankara launched the national program on Thursday, first vaccinating health workers and inoculating more than 285,000 people on the first day. At 1601 GMT, the total was 600,040.
The government credited its national distribution of vaccines earlier this week, as well as its digitized health records and hospital services for rapid operation.
“We are a country experienced in implementing vaccination programs across the country. Our infrastructure is more than capable of conducting this program in a controlled manner. We will win the battle against the pandemic together,” said Health Minister Fahrettin Koca, in Twitter.
About 3.23 million people have been vaccinated in Britain and, according to the Our World in Data website, 2.16 million in Israel. In Russia, the RDIF sovereign wealth fund said on Wednesday that 1.5 million Russians were inoculated with the Sputnik V vaccine.
Indonesia, which is also using the Sinovac injection, has inoculated 15,301 people in the past two days, said a senior health ministry official there. Official distribution started on Wednesday, but selected medical workers and public officials were injected on Thursday and Friday.
Worldwide tests of the injection made by Sinovac Biotech Ltd, called CoronaVac, have shown comprehensive efficacy rates, leading to some criticism. [nL4N2JQ2Z3]
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan asked the Turks to ignore the criticism. He received his first dose of the vaccine on Thursday and asked other politicians to endorse the program.
Turkey has reported more than 2.3 million COVID-19 infections and 23,000 deaths since March. After a month of blockades on weekends and night curfews, the daily death toll has dropped to 169.
(Reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu and Dominic Evans; Writing by Daren Butler; Editing by Jonathan Spicer)