Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey ranks fifth in the world in terms of the number of vaccines delivered.
"As of today, we have vaccinated 11,500,000 people,” the president said, as he highlighted that Turkey was one of the first countries to start the vaccination process.
Turkey rolled out the Chinese Sinovac vaccine on Jan. 14. The vaccine is given in two doses, 28 days apart. Ankara has also ordered 4.5 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
Currently, only CoronaVac, an inactive vaccine developed by China’s Sinovac is available for use. The Health Ministry plans to diversify the vaccines by acquiring from other companies abroad, while trials continue for locally-made vaccines, Daily Sabah reported.
The vaccination drive is one of the determining factors for Turkey’s ambition to “normalize” daily life. This month, a gradual reopening was launched for some businesses, while nationwide curfews have been eased on a regional basis. The country has so far confirmed more than 2.78 million cases, including 29,030 fatalities and over 2.62 million recoveries.
