ANKARA - More than 600,000 health workers in Turkey have received their first doses of COVID-19 shots developed by China's Sinovac during the first two days of the country's vaccination program, Turkish Health Ministry's data showed on Friday.

A shipment containing boxes of China's Sinovac coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccines arrives at Esenboga Airport in Ankara, Turkey, December 30, 2020. [Photo/Agencies]

Turkey reported on Friday 8,314 new COVID-19 cases, including 921 symptomatic patients, as the total number of positive cases in the country reached 2,373,115, according to its health ministry.

The death toll from the virus in Turkey rose by 169 to 23,664, while the total recoveries climbed to 2,246,047 after 9,109 more cases recovered in the last 24 hours.

The rate of pneumonia in COVID-19 patients stands at 4.5 percent and the number of seriously ill patients is 2,311 in the country, said the ministry.

A total of 167,211 tests were conducted over the past day, with the overall number of tests in Turkey reaching 27,066,653.

The country started mass vaccination for COVID-19 on Jan. 14 after the authorities approved the emergency use of the Chinese vaccine.