ANKARA (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 03rd June, 2020) Moscow and Ankara will jointly cooperate to produce drugs and a vaccine against COVID-19, Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on Tuesday after holding phone talks with his Russian counterpart Mikhail Murashko.
"I talked with my Russian counterpart Mikhail Murashko. He said that he has observed Turkey's success in combating COVID-19. We decided that the organizations that are subordinate to our ministries should work together to create a vaccine and medicines," Koca wrote on Twitter.
Earlier in the day, Murashko said that Russia has, so far, released close to 30 separate test systems to identify COVID-19. The health minister said that the speed with which Russian firms have been able to design and launch test kits is an indicator of the success of Russia's medical science industry.
Koca on Tuesday announced that 786 new cases of COVID-19 were reported in Turkey over the preceding 24 hours, the lowest daily increase to the case total since March 25. Since the start of the outbreak, Turkey has confirmed more than 165,500 cases of the disease.
