Covid-19: Turkey rolls out its own vaccine as infections surge

Turkey began administering its domestically developed Covid-19 vaccine, Turkovac, at hospitals across the country on Thursday, amid a rapid surge in infections due to the Omicron variant.

Turkey has already administered more than 130 million doses of vaccines using shots developed by China’s Sinovac and by Pfizer/BioNTech. It also began administering booster shots.

Turkovac received emergency use authorisation from Turkish authorities last week, after its launch was beset by delays for months.

Daily coronavirus cases jumped beyond 30,000 this week for the first time since October. New infections surged 30 per cent on Monday and jumped further to beyond 36,000 on Wednesday, the highest daily figure since April 29.

Health Minister Fahrettin Koca has urged citizens to get their booster shots.

Koca met with the country’s coronavirus science council on Wednesday to discuss the Turkovac rollout and rising infections after receiving a booster shot with the domestic vaccine, but said no new restrictions were being considered for now.

President Tayyip Erdogan has repeatedly said his government would make Turkovac available globally, but Ankara has yet to release detailed information about the vaccine’s efficacy rate or results from clinical trials.