ANKARA, June 10 (Xinhua) -- Turkey will start on Friday to vaccinate the catering sector, along with the barbers and hairdressers, against the COVID-19 as part of its ongoing nationwide vaccination campaign, Turkey's Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said Thursday.

Chefs wearing face masks prepare a meal at a restaurant in Ankara, Turkey, on June 1, 2021. Turkey entered a new stage on Tuesday in the fight against COVID-19 after the government further eased the anti-coronavirus restrictions. (Photo: Xinhua)

"The food production, distribution sector and cafe, restaurant employees will also be included in the program as of tomorrow. As part of the vaccination program, barbers and hairdressers are also to be vaccinated," Koca tweeted.

Turkey launched its nationwide vaccination on Jan. 14 with the Chinese Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine and recently the Pfizer-BioNTech jabs. More than 18,736,000 people have been vaccinated so far.

Turkey on Thursday reported 6,408 new COVID-19 cases, including 563 symptomatic patients, raising the total number of cases in the country to 5,313,098.

The death toll from the virus in Turkey rose by 91 to 48,524, while the total recoveries climbed to 5,186,728 after 6,895 more people recovered in the last 24 hours.

A total of 223,320 tests were conducted over the past day, with the overall number of tests in Turkey reaching 56,346,656.

Turkey reported its first COVID-19 case on March 11, 2020.