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

Turkey has administered more than 118 million coronavirus vaccine doses since launching a mass immunization campaign in January, according to official figures.

More than 55.75 million people have received their first dose, while over 49.47 million are fully vaccinated, said the Health Ministry.

The ministry also reported 24,898 new cases, while 197 patients died from the disease in the past 24 hours.

The 8th Summit of the Cooperation Council of Turkic Speaking States (Turkic Council) will be hosted by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday with the theme "Green Technologies and Smart Cities in the Digital Age" on an island southeast of Istanbul.

National Afforestation Day was marked across the country and Ankara launched an initiative to plant 252 million saplings by the end of the year.

Blaming Turkey for the refugee crisis is a "real ingratitude," President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at a joint news conference with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

At least nine foreign nationals suspected of being members of the Daesh/ISIS and Al-Qaeda terrorist groups were apprehended in Istanbul.

Turkey reiterated its support for Poland, Latvia and Lithuania amid a refugee influx on their borders with Belarus.

COVID-19 updates worldwide

More than 7.36 billion coronavirus vaccine doses have been administered worldwide, according to Our World in Data, a tracking website affiliated with Oxford University.

Turkey and Azerbaijan, two member states of the Turkic Council, and observer Hungary announced that they will donate COVID-19 vaccines to African countries in need.

Bangladesh registered a single coronavirus death as infections have been on a downtrend for several months amid a nationwide vaccination campaign.

Germany reported more than 50,000 coronavirus cases, the highest daily total since the pandemic started, according to official data.

Africa has so far recorded over 8.5 million COVID-19 cases and 220,000 deaths, an update by the African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said, hinting at a decrease in new infections.

Kazakhstan has received 380,000 doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine.

Data from Phase 3 trials of the coronavirus vaccine Covaxin, developed in India, has shown that two doses offer 77.8% protection against COVID-19, according to findings published in The Lancet medical journal.

Pakistan will provide free COVID-19 vaccines to all Afghans coming into the country, said Prime Minister Imran Khan.

Other global developments

South Africa’s last apartheid-era president, Frederik Willem de Klerk, has died at the age of 85.

Over a week of heavy rain has lashed Sri Lanka, causing floods that have killed at least 22 people and displaced over 5,000.

Five civilians, including three children, were killed in Russian airstrikes in Syria’s opposition-held northwestern Idlib province.

At least three people were killed and several others wounded when a suicide bomber rammed his car into a security convoy in the Somali capital Mogadishu.

Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the migration crisis on the Belarusian-Polish border in a telephone call with German Chancellor Angela Merkel for a second time in as many days, according to the Kremlin.

Sudan's army head Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan issued a decree to form a new transitional Sovereign Council, appointing himself as its chairman.

World famous Turkish pop star Sertab Erener called for "urgent action to save people and the planet" in a new song.