Turkey receives 1.4 million doses of BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine

Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said that Turkey had received the first batch of BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine on March 23, apart from the ones that had previously arrived for "testing and clinical research" purposes. He said that the BioNTech vaccine had not been yet administered in Turkey and that the country currently holds 1.4 million doses of this vaccine.

Wednesday March 24 2021 10:16 pm

A pharmacist prepares a syringe of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine in this file photo.

Duvar English - Reuters

Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on March 24 that the country had received about 1.4 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Germany's BioNTech in the last two days, the first consignments to arrive apart from test samples.

BioNTech developed the vaccine together with Pfizer Inc.

The minister said on Twitter that 5,800 doses had arrived last week for testing purposes, followed by 750,000 on March 23 and 700,000 on March 24.

Bugün ayrıca 700 bin dozdan fazla Biontech aşısı daha ülkemize ulaştı. Böylece yaklaşık 1.4 milyon doz kullanıma hazır aşı ulaşmış oldu. Bu aşı ülkemizde ilk defa kullanılacak. Aşı ,saklama koşulları uygun olan her merkezimizde uygulanacak.
— Dr. Fahrettin Koca (@drfahrettinkoca) March 24, 2021

After the testing process, the first doses will be administered to citizens next week, Koca said.

Biontech aşısı geçen hafta 5.800 doz test edilmek üzere ülkemize ulaştı. Dün ise yaklaşık 750 bin doz aşı teslim aldık. Testler ve klinik araştırma dışında ilk kez Biontech aşısı geldi. Güvenlik testleri yapılıyor ve önümüzdeki hafta sırası gelen vatandaşlarımıza uygulanacak. pic.twitter.com/ENDMpAd9rt
— Dr. Fahrettin Koca (@drfahrettinkoca) March 24, 2021

Main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) MP Murat Emir had said on March 18 that the country had already received 1.5 million doses of BioNTech vaccine, basing his argument on a report by Bloomberg.

"According to Bloomberg's report, it seems that 1.5 million doses of vaccine have been exported from the EU to Turkey. If this news is true, Pfizer's vaccine has already arrived [to Turkey] and is maybe being used in secret," Emir had said.

Bloomberg’in haberine göre AB’den Türkiye’ye 1.5 milyon doz aşı ihraç edilmiş görünüyor.

Haber doğruysa Pfizer aşısı çoktan gelmiş ve el altından kullanılıyor olabilir.

Artık açıklama yapmayacağım diyerek bizi yabancı ajanslara muhtaç eden bakandan acil açıklama bekliyoruz. pic.twitter.com/oIoCYYGWef
— Murat Emir (@muratemirchp) March 18, 2021

Meanwhile, Turkey recorded nearly 30,000 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, the highest level this year, Health Ministry data showed on March 24. Case numbers have continued to rise sharply after measures to curb the pandemic were eased this month.

Turkey has until now been using COVID-19 shots developed by China's Sinovac Biotech Ltd and it has carried out 14.13 million inoculations, with 8.15 million people now having received a first dose, since Jan. 14 when the nationwide rollout began.