Turkey to start COVID-19 vaccination before weekend

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks at a press conference in Ankara, Turkey, on Jan. 11, 2021. Turkey will start COVID-19 vaccination for its citizens as of Thursday or Friday, Erdogan said on Monday. (Xinhua)

ANKARA, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- Turkey will start COVID-19 vaccination for its citizens as of Thursday or Friday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday.

The Chinese vaccine will be implemented for Turkish citizens in order of priority, he told reporters after a cabinet meeting.

Turkey reported on Monday 10,220 new COVID-19 cases, including 1,003 symptomatic patients, as the total number of positive cases in the country reached 2,336,476, its health ministry announced.

The death toll from the virus in Turkey rose by 174 to 22,981, while the total recoveries climbed to 2,208,451, after 10,301 more cases recovered in the last 24 hours.

The rate of pneumonia in COVID-19 patients stands at 4.5 percent and the number of seriously ill patients is 2,783 in the country, said the ministry.

A total of 180,303 tests were conducted over the past day, with the overall number of tests in Turkey reaching 26,376,784.

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

Turkey and China have supported each other in the fight against COVID-19. Chinese doctors and medical experts held video conferences with Turkish counterparts to share China's experience in treating coronavirus patients, protecting medical workers, and controlling the spread of the virus.

The first batch of 3 million doses of China's SinoVac COVID-19 vaccine arrived in Ankara on Dec. 30, 2020.