Turkey has three million vaccine doses; it needs 120 million in six months for 'full immunity'

Photo: AA

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The Ministry of Health started a mass Covid-19 vaccination campaign starting with health care workers yesterday (January 14) and has vaccinated more than 517,000 people as of 2.30 p.m., according to a counter on the ministry's website. 

Ankara agreed with China to buy 50 million doses of the CoronaVac vaccine developed by the Sinovac company and received the first batch of three million doses at the end of December.

Turkey, a country of 83 million people, needs to administer at least 120 million doses in six months in order to achieve full immunity, the Turkish Medical Association (TTB) said in a statement today.

"In order to achieve community immunity, 75 to 90 percent of the people need to be vaccinated with a vaccine that is 80 percent effective," the association explained. "For vaccines with a lower efficacy rate, it is stated that all the people should be vaccinated."

"All vaccines are effective in preventing deaths"

Figures on the efficacy rate of CoronaVac vary from 50 to 90 percent. While a study on the frontline health workers in Brazil found the efficacy rate slightly over 50 percent, a study on a limited group of about 1,300 people in Turkey showed that the vaccine is 91 percent effective.

The vaccines produced by Pfizer-Biontech, Moderna and Oxford-AstraZeneca achieved efficacy rates of more than 90 percent.

However, the TTB said, all four vaccines are nearly 100 percent effective in terms of preventing serious illnesses and deaths. It also noted none of the vaccines have serious side effects, according to the information available.

The association also noted that side effects and efficacy rates of the vaccines vary by age groups.

The association asked the following questions for the ministry for the "proper management of public resources":

• Based on which data an emergency use approval was deemed appropriate by the Turkish Medicines and Medical Devices Agency (TİTCK)?
• Considering that various vaccines, as summarized above, have different advantages and disadvantages over one another according to different age and risk groups, will the diversity of vaccines be increased in Turkey?
• Will the continuity of vaccine supply be ensured?
• How much was the cost of a dose of the vaccine? How much was paid for three million doses of vaccine? (AS/VK)