The Latest: Turkey to receive 3M CoronaVac vaccine doses

ISTANBUL — An infectious disease expert serving on Turkey’s medical board says an experimental vaccine developed by Chinese biopharmaceutical company Sinovac showed an efficacy rate of 91,25 percent based on early results of late-stage trials in the country.

CoronaVac is a so-called inactivated vaccine developed by Sinovac Biotech. Dr. Serhat Unal announced the initial results Thursday following randomized trials involving 7,371 volunteers and said the vaccine was safe.

Turkey’s Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said in the press conference the results were the first to be announced for CoronaVac. Sinovac had delayed announcement of results from late-stage trials to January.

Koca said the first shipment of three million doses of CoronaVac would be shipped to Turkey on Sunday and arrive Monday. He had initially announced the vaccines would arrive after Dec. 11 but said some permits caused the delay. Turkey has signed a deal for 50 million doses of the vaccine.

The health minister also said an agreement for Pfizer BioNTech’s vaccine was close. He said Turkey could get 4.5 million doses until the end of March and would have the option buy up to 30 million doses.

Turkey is among the worst-hit country’s in the world, with a seven-day average of about 23,000 confirmed COVID-19 infections daily.

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