ANKARA
Anadolu Agency is here with a rundown of the latest developments on the coronavirus pandemic and other news in Turkey and around the world.
Coronavirus and other developments in Turkey
The country continues its intensive vaccination campaign to curb the spread of the coronavirus as all residents over the age of 18 can choose to get either the Chinese Sinovac jab or the vaccine produced by German firm BioNTech and its US partner Pfizer.
According to Health Ministry data, over 38.4 million people have gotten their first dose, while more than 18.7 million have received their second dose. In the last 24 hours, the country administered more than 1 million coronavirus vaccines.
The total number of first, second and third doses given was just over 11 million in Istanbul, 4.95 million in the capital Ankara, and 4.06 million in the Aegean province of Izmir.
The ministry also confirmed 6,907 new coronavirus infections and 43 deaths in the last 24 hours, while as many as 5,063 more patients recovered. Also, more than 238,000 virus tests were conducted.
COVID-19 updates worldwide
The count of administered COVID-19 vaccine shots applied across the world has topped 3.51 billion, according to Oxford University’s website ourworldindata.org.
Despite stricter measures by authorities to combat COVID-19, new cases and deaths continue to climb in Russia, with the country's single-day fatalities hitting an all-time high of over 750.
Cambodia is temporarily closing its border with Vietnam due to rising cases of the coronavirus, local media reported.
Indonesia and Malaysia on Wednesday confirmed record daily coronavirus cases as both countries continue to be in the grip of the Delta variant, a strain first detected in India.
Senegal reported 733 new coronavirus cases, the most confirmed in a single day since the beginning of the pandemic.
The number of COVID-19 cases in Greece has increased tenfold in the last month, prompting the government to adopt tougher penalties, including the suspension of employees who do not comply with new regulations.
Palestine is on the verge of a fourth wave of the coronavirus pandemic, the Palestinian Health Ministry warned.
Hospitals in Bangladesh are fast running out of space to accommodate the burgeoning number of COVID-19 patients, the country’s main health authority said.
Demonstrators in France protested the announcement of mandatory vaccinations for health workers and the implementation of a health pass restricting access to public places for the unvaccinated.
Argentina’s official death toll from the coronavirus surpassed 100,000 as the pandemic puts further strains on the country’s struggling economy.
British Health Secretary Sajid Javid announced that two-thirds of Brits have now received both doses of a COVID-19 vaccine as the UK recorded the highest number of cases since mid-January.
Other global developments
The Iraqi Health Ministry put the death toll from a fire that engulfed the coronavirus isolation ward at Al-Hussein Hospital in southern Iraq at 60.
A Palestinian youth was injured by Israeli gunfire and 12 others were detained during Israeli raids Wednesday in the occupied West Bank, according to a local official.
Israeli forces demolished the dwellings of a Bedouin community inhabited by 11 Palestinian families in the occupied West Bank, according to a local activist.
At least 12 people, including nine Chinese nationals, were killed in an explosion due to an accident in northern Pakistan.
The United Arab Emirates opened its embassy in Israel in the presence of Israeli President Isaac Herzog.
