The World Health Organization (WHO) awarded Turkey on Thursday for its success in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic.
The award was presented at a high-level meeting on health and migration of WHO European Region by Regional Director for Europe Hans Kluge, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on Twitter.
Health ministers and representatives of the 53 member states of the region gathered in Istanbul for a two-day meeting to discuss strategic priorities for health and migration beyond 2022.
The meeting, which was organized in a hybrid format, aims to jointly create a new common vision for health and migration, strengthen existing connections, forge new partnerships and build consensus on new and emerging priorities.
In its third year since its first reported case, Turkey appears to be leaving the worst of the coronavirus pandemic behind. The skyrocketing number of cases last month had renewed fears, but the daily number of cases plummeted to as low as 25,000 from around 100,000. This trend seems to be linked to the peak theory that says cases need to reach the highest possible point before they begin to decline. In addition, Turkey is witnessing a drop in the number of people hospitalized or in critical care.
Turkey reported 21,354 new coronavirus cases Thursday. The Health Ministry said 101 virus-related fatalities and 25,619 recoveries were recorded in the past 24 hours and as many as 319,260 virus tests were conducted.
To counter the spread of the virus, Turkey has administered more than 146.37 million COVID-19 vaccine doses since it launched an immunization drive in January 2021. More than 57.74 million people have received a first vaccine jab, while 52.91 million have been immunized twice and 27.45 million have received booster shots.
As the virus is losing its grip, Turkey scrapped the outdoor mask mandate in early March, a longtime measure to stem the spread of COVID-19.
Since December 2019, the pandemic has claimed more than 6 million lives in at least 192 countries and regions, with over 464 million cases reported, according to United States-based Johns Hopkins University.