DIYARBAKIR, (HRNW) Turkey, July 28 (Reuters) – In the Turkish city of Diyarbakir, health workers’ pleas to citizens to get vaccinated against COVID-19 ring out through the streets as a surge in new cases in the country’s east, where vaccination rates lag, alarms authorities.
“Valued people of Diyarbakir, the best way to be protected from illness is vaccination,” a health worker announces through an ambulance speaker, as part of a mobile campaign that started during last week’s Muslim holiday of Eid al Adha.
The mobile teams have vaccinated some 5,000 people in 15 days by visiting neighbourhoods and villages and informing people, said Semih Erdal Tekay, a local health official.
Nearly half of Turkey’s population of 84 million has received at least one vaccine dose, but eastern provinces, the country’s most deprived and where suspicion of the vaccines lingers, have seen slow uptake.
The region has led a national surge in new cases to nearly 20,000 a day from around 5,000 two weeks ago.
Be the first to comment on "Turkey tackles low vaccine take-up in east as COVID-19 cases surge"