Anadolu Agency's Morning Briefing – June 16, 2021

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 over 35.6 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines since it launched a mass vaccination campaign in mid-January, according to official figures released Tuesday.

Turkey administered over 1.2 million coronavirus vaccine doses Tuesday, according to the country's health minister.

Fahrettin Koca said on Twitter that over 1.24 million vaccine jabs had been given.

More than 21.7 million people have received their first doses, while over 13.9 million have been fully vaccinated, according to the Health Ministry.

The ministry also confirmed 5,955 new coronavirus cases, including 532 symptomatic patients, across the country in the last 24 hours. The number of new cases on Monday was 5,626.

Turkey's overall case tally is now over 5.34 million, while the nationwide death toll has reached 48,879 with 84 new fatalities.

As many as 4,186 more patients won the battle against the virus, pushing the total number of recoveries past 5.21 million.

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met Tuesday with his Azerbaijani counterpart in the city of Fuzuli, which was liberated by Azerbaijan during the war in the Nagorno-Karabakh region late last year.

A wanted Daesh/ISIS terrorist was brought to Turkey after he was nabbed in an operation led by Turkey's National Intelligence Organization (MIT) in Syria.

COVID-19 updates worldwide

Nearly 2.42 billion doses of coronavirus vaccines have been given worldwide so far.

The total number of people in the US who lost their lives due to the coronavirus has surpassed 600,000, according to data from Maryland's Johns Hopkins University on Tuesday.

A new study suggests that the coronavirus was infecting Americans as early as December 2019.

Russia saw further growth in daily coronavirus cases Tuesday with 14,185 new cases registered over the last 24 hours, taking the tally to 5.23 million.

Uganda is running short of medical oxygen in its referral hospitals, health officials said.

South Africa's most populated province Gauteng faces a shortage of beds as the country deals with a third wave of COVID-19 infections, health officials and legislators said.

South Africa's president introduced new coronavirus restrictions late Tuesday to help the country curb the spread of the virus and save lives as it battles a third wave of the pandemic.

Other global developments

Russian President Vladimir Putin reacted to recent descriptions of him by US President Joseph Biden in an exclusive interview with US TV channel NBC aired Monday ahead of a summit between the two leaders in Geneva.

The Developing-8 has made vital progress despite its young age, the secretary-general of the economic bloc said Tuesday, marking its 24th anniversary.

A ground-breaking ceremony for the fourth MILGEM Ada class corvette made by Turkey for Pakistan was held in the southern port city of Karachi.

The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) is ready to present a constructive attitude in talks that are likely to start to affirm equal sovereignty of the island, the country's Foreign Ministry said Tuesday.

The recent Israeli military strikes on the Gaza Strip in Palestine which lasted for 11 days did not even spare the dead buried in various cemeteries, besides leaving a trail of death and destruction.

The EU and US decided to end a 17-year-long dispute over Airbus-Boeing aircraft subsidies and return to excellent trade relations, the top EU official said.

Qatar's Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani received a letter from Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi inviting him to visit Cairo "at the earliest opportunity."

Former Nicaraguan President Enrique Bolanos Geyer, known for his fight against corruption, has died, his family announced Tuesday. He was 93. -