Ankara, July 28 (IANS) Turkey on Tuesday registered 19,761 new Covid-19 cases, raising its tally of infections to 5,638,178, according to its health ministry.

The death toll from the virus in Turkey rose by 51 to 51,048, while 7,108 more people recovered in 24 hours, the Xinhua news agency reported.

A total of 246,648 tests were conducted over the past day, it said.

Turkey has started mass Covid-19 vaccination on Jan. 14 after the authorities approved the emergency use of the Chinese Sinovac vaccine.

More than 39.96 million people have received their first doses of the vaccine, while over 24.48 million had their second doses. Turkey has so far administered over 68.68 million doses including third booster jabs.

According to Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca, a total of 22,344,407 people have not yet had their first dose of vaccine.

--IANS int/rs