Kurdish provinces in Turkey have the lowest vaccination rates in the country, reveals data released Feb. 4 by the Turkish Ministry of Health and the TÜİK Statistics Institute. A published map shows the disparity in terms of Covid-19 vaccine distribution. The least vaccinated areas are in Turkey's eastern provinces, in Kurdistan.

Hakkari has the lowest rate

The data show that the average vaccination rate across Turkey is 4.01 percent. The Kurdish province of Hakkari has the lowest vaccination rate at 1.27 percent. Other provinces with low rates are Ağrı (1.34%), Şırnak, (1.46%), Siirt, (1.67%), Urfa, (1.76%), Mardin, (1.7%), Muş (1.77%) Bitlis (2.11%), Bingöl, (2.11%), Van, (2.32%), and Amed (2.64%).

Isparta (6.71%), Amasya (6.38%), Bolu (6.29%), Burdur (6.07%), Edirne (5.82%), Eskişehir (5.77%), Çanakkale (5.70%), Artvin (5.61%), Giresun (5.56%), and Çorum (5.39%) have the highest vaccination rates.

Ankara has a rate of 5.35 percent and ranks 11th, while Izmir is 30th with a rate of 4.62 percent. Istanbul, with a population of more than 15 million, has a vaccination rate of 3.63 percent and ranks 55th on the list.

Total number of vaccinations

According to the Ministry, 2,599,607 people have been vaccinated in Turkey so far. There have been 2,382 vaccinations in Hakkari and 30,305 in Amed.

Vaccine from China

Turkey has purchased the Sinovac vaccine from China, reportedly a total of 50 million doses of vaccine. According to the Ministry of Health, viral mutations have been detected in twenty provinces. According to official figures, more than two and a half million infections have been registered in Turkey so far, and more than 26,000 people have died.