Turkey signs deal for more Chinese COVID-19 vaccines

ANKARA -- Turkey has made a deal for 50 million more doses of Chinese vaccines, Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on Wednesday.

"Previously, a contract was made for 50 million doses of vaccine. We had 50 plus 50 (million doses) request from (Chinese company) Sinovac, and a contract for the second 50 million was signed," he told reporters at a press conference.

Turkey has received 13 million doses of the CoronaVac COVID-19 vaccine so far.

Turkey will also get 500,000-800,000 BioNTech vaccine doses in February, with the number of doses reaching 4.5 million to 5 million by the end of March, said the minister.

Turkey on Wednesday reported 8,642 new COVID-19 cases, including 664 symptomatic patients, as the total number of positive cases in the country reached 2,556,837, according to the health ministry.

The death toll from the virus in Turkey rose by 95 to 27,093, while the total recoveries climbed to 2,445,285 after 7,903 more cases recovered in the last 24 hours.

The country started mass vaccination of health workers on Jan 14 after the authorities approved the emergency use of the Chinese CoronaVac vaccine. More than 2,810,000 people have been vaccinated so far.

Turkey reported its first COVID-19 case on March 11, 2020.