Turkey’s Health Minister says vaccines from China to be shipped on Sunday night

Health Minister Fahrettin KOCA made statements after the Science Board meeting. He said, “If all goes well, the vaccines will be sent on the night connecting Sunday to Monday” noting that the Chinese authorities have approved vaccines to be sent to Turkey.

Referring to problems with the Pfizer-Biontech vaccine Koca said, “The details of the contract for up to 30 million doses of the vaccine have been clarified. It’ll be signed no later than tonight or tomorrow. We planned the BioNTech vaccine as 4.5 million doses by the end of March. I think in January we will have received a quantity of 1 or 1.5 million.” He also said, “We will have bought both the Sinovac and Pfizer vaccines cheaper than the world.”

Koca went on to say, “We are not in favour of mandatory vaccination” noting that he will be one of the first people to receive the vaccine along with health workers. He noted that he believed that if citizens could be convinced, everyone would get the vaccine.” he said.

On the other hand, Koca also shared following, “As a result of strict measures, a significant decrease in the number of cases was recorded in Istanbul, which was reflected in outpatient applications by 50 percent, hospital admissions and intensive care occupancy rates by 25 percent.