ANKARA (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 22nd June, 2021) The Turkish coronavirus vaccine will be called Turkovac, and third phase of its clinical trials has begun, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday.
"Our new vaccine will be called Turkovac. I wish everything goes well and we get results soon," Erdogan said in a video conference at the opening of the Phase III trials of the Turkish COVID-19 vaccine.
The Turkovac dose was administered to the first volunteer live on the NTV broadcaster.
In January, Turkey began vaccination against coronavirus with the CoronaVac vaccine of the Chinese company Sinovac Biotech; since March, the country has been also using the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine. In late April, Turkey allowed the emergency use of Russia's Sputnik V. According to the Turkish Health Ministry, more than 43 million citizens received the first dose of coronavirus vaccines in the country, and more than 14 million received the second dose.
