Minister: Turkey plans to start Covid vaccination this month

Photo: AA

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As prospective vaccines make headlines worldwide, Turkey plans to start administering vaccines against the novel coronavirus as soon as this month, Minister of Health Fahrettin Koca has said.

"Relating to the vaccines, we want to start intensely in December," he told reporters at the parliament yesterday (December 1).

Koca noted that at least 10 million, but probably roughly 20 million, vaccine doses would be procured in December, along with 20 million doses in January and another 10 million in February.

Turkey's science committee is preparing plans to start vaccinating health workers on December 11, he said.

The Phase-3 trials of the Chinese Covid-19 vaccine, which began on Sept. 15, are also ongoing.

They include high-risk healthcare workers and medium-risk volunteers.

Vaccines are being administered to volunteers at 25 centers across 12 provinces, with the overall test sample to total 12,450. (EKN/VK)