Turkey’s Health Ministry on Friday issued emergency approval for Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine, making it the third COVID-19 vaccine available for use in the country, QİA.AZ reports citing Daily Sabah.
Though Turkey has yet to receive any shipment of the vaccine, the Health Minister announced that they would acquire the jab soon. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Friday confirmed the expected delivery of the vaccine.
Erdoğan said Turkey does not have any problem regarding its COVID-19 vaccine supplies. “We have enough vaccines for now. We held talks with Russia and we will bring in the Sputnik V vaccine,” Erdoğan told reporters in Istanbul on Friday.
His remarks come at a time when the number of shots administered against the virus crossed more than 22.7 million. Some 13.7 million people had their first shots while more than 9 million have received the second dose of the vaccine.
The president said he would also talk to Russian President Vladimir Putin and expected that Turkey would obtain “a serious amount of Sputnik vaccine” after the meeting. He also mentioned that they were set to receive more shipments of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine from Germany. He noted that they also planned to receive a high amount of CoronaVac, the first vaccine used in Turkey, from China, after he discussed the vaccine delivery issue with China’s Xi Jinping.