As the coronavirus continues to spread, Covid-19 vaccines are reportedly in the final stages of testing. The death toll increases day by day in Turkey as the virus continues to spread rapidly.
Turkey has registered 28,351 more coronavirus infections, according to data provided by Turkey’s Ministry of Health on 25 November. With 6,814 new cases registered in the past day, the total number of cases in the country has reached 467,730. A total of 3,911 patients reportedly recovered over the past day, bringing the tally to 385,480 recovered people.
Reportedly, 164,547 Covid-19 tests were carried out across the country on 25 November, bringing the total number of tests to 17.73 million. The number of patients in a critical condition was 4,641. As there has been growing suspicion over the accuracy of the official figures since the beginning of the pandemic in Turkey, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca admitted that his Ministry was excluding asymptomatic cases from its daily count. Following a meeting of the Coronavirus Scientific Advisory Board, Koca announced that the number of asymptomatic cases will also be shared at a later date. Koca also said the country’s daily test capacity would reach more than 200,000 in the coming days and stated that the spread of coronavirus has been getting worse in Turkey since mid-October.
After scientists in China published the coronavirus genome sequence in January, scientists around the world began to work on developing a vaccine. Details on when Covid-19 vaccines are going to reach Turkey and how they are going to be applied were discussed at the press conference held by Health Minister Koca. Koca announced that Turkey had agreed to purchase 50 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine produced by the China-based company Sinovac.
Stating that the vaccine will be applied to citizens free of charge, Koca said: “We are aiming at 20 million vaccines at the beginning, at least 10 million vaccines in December, 20 million in January, and a contract for 50 million doses has been signed”.
Minister Koca also stated that they expect to use the vaccines developed domestically in April 2021: “Sixteen different vaccine studies have been carried out in our country. We are one of the rare countries trying to develop new vaccines. One of the studies has completed the pre-clinical period and 44 volunteers were tested. The second dose will be given between 26 November and 14 December. We hope that we will have the first domestic vaccine available in April 2020”
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