Turkey announces phase III trials of indigenous COVID-19 vaccine

Ankara, Turkey, | XINHUA |  Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday announced the phase III trials of its indigenous COVID-19 vaccine named Turkovac.

The vaccine, which is made with inactivated coronaviruses, is expected to be available for use by the end of this year, Erdogan said at an event for the inoculation of the first phase III volunteers with the vaccine.

Turkey on Tuesday confirmed 6,143 new COVID-19 cases, including 565 symptomatic patients, raising the total number of cases in the country to 5,381,736, according to its health ministry.

The death toll from the virus in Turkey rose by 57 to 49,293, while the total recoveries climbed to 5,242,945 after 5,214 more people recovered in the last 24 hours.

A total of 223,238 tests were conducted over the past day, with the overall number of tests in Turkey reaching 58,997,073.

Turkey started mass COVID-19 vaccination on Jan. 14 after the authorities approved the emergency use of the Chinese Sinovac vaccine. More than 29,093,000 people have been vaccinated in the country so far