The first shipment of coronavirus vaccines developed by Chinese biopharmaceutical company Sinovac will be dispatched to Turkey Sunday night and will arrive on Monday, the country’s health minister announced Thursday.
Turkey will initially receive 3 million doses of CoronaVac, Fahrettin Koca told a press conference after a meeting of the country’s Coronavirus Scientific Advisory Board.
The vaccines were initially expected to arrive after Dec. 11, but Koca said permit issues caused the delay. Turkey has signed a deal for 50 million doses of the vaccine which are expected to arrive by the end of February.
An infectious disease expert serving on Turkey’s board said CoronaVac is 91.25% effective and the rate is likely to increase based on late-stage trial data.
Dr. Serhat Ünal announced the initial results following randomized trials involving 7,371 volunteers and said the vaccine was safe.
Ünal said no major side effects were detected during the vaccine trials in Turkey, except in one case where an allergic reaction was observed.
Koca said the results were the first to be announced for CoronaVac.
