ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Turkey logged 30,438 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, the highest number of daily infections since April 30, health ministry data showed.
Turkey recorded 236 deaths from the virus in the same period.
Turkey’s daily cases have risen over the past month at a rate higher than most comparable countries, according to global data, while the country’s vaccination rate based on population is higher than most peers.
While the rise in Turkey’s daily death toll since mid-July has been among the sharpest in Europe and the Middle East, according to global data, deaths edged lower after touching 290 in September.
Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said the current number of daily infections was a “critical load”.
“Even though the current active cases do not pressure the health system because they are young, it is not acceptable to still have a high number of infected people,” he said in a statement, urging people to get vaccinated.
Koca said there was currently no need for people who received two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to get a third dose.
“It was evaluated that protection still continues considering that our citizens who had two doses of the mRNA vaccine were inoculated four months ago on average,” he said.
Turkey has currently administered a third dose to more than 10.6 million who received two doses of the vaccine developed by Sinovac. People can choose either Sinovac or Pfizer-BioNTech for their third dose.
Koca urged people who received two Sinovac doses to get a third shot of either vaccine.
(Reporting by Ali Kucukgocmen; editing by John Stonestreet and Giles Elgood)
