A total of 100 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines are expected to arrive in Turkey by the end of May, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said Thursday.
Speaking after a virtual meeting of the Coronavirus Scientific Advisory Board, Koca said that 1.4 million Pfizer-BioNTech jabs have arrived in Turkey so far, and the figure will reach 4.5 million by April.
He added that an optional deal for another 30 million shots from Pfizer-BioNTech has also been made.
“Turkey has started phase 1 trials of virus-like particle vaccine today-one of the most innovative vaccine candidates in the world,” the minister said.
Saying that Turkey has made significant progress in developing indigenous COVID-19 vaccines, Koca shared that one candidate, developed by Turkey’s Erciyes University, will enter phase 3 trials by the end of April as the last volunteer will get the second dose on April 9.
“Turkey is working on the world’s first intra-nasal COVID-19 vaccine,” Koca also said.
