ANKARA

After health care professionals, Turkey on Tuesday started vaccinating residents and workers in care and nursing homes against COVID-19.

People staying and working at official and private care homes, disabled care centers, and nursing homes under the ambit of the Family, Labor and Social Services Ministry received the first dose of the Chinese Sinovac vaccine.

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Nursing home residents and staff vaccination in Ankara

ANKARA, TURKEY - JANUARY 19: An elder is vaccinated with CoronaVac against coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic at a nursing home in Ankara, Turkey on January 19, 2021. ( Emin Sansar - Anadolu Agency )

People 90 and above, who are staying at their homes, are also among the second group of people to be vaccinated.

The program is planned to be completed in a week with inoculation of a total of 87,120 people including 18,450 personnel, 30,000 disabled people in care homes, 14,470 personnel and 24,200 elderly people in the nursing homes.

Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on Monday that according to the schedule, the inoculation of Turkey’s health care workers will be completed by Wednesday.

The first batch of 3 million doses of the vaccine developed by China’s Sinovac arrived in Turkey on Dec. 30.

In addition to health care workers, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and other top officials were also vaccinated to encourage the public.

*Contributions and writing by Sena Guler