Turkey's locally-produced COVID vaccine Turkovac approved for emergency use - health chief

Turkey's domestically developed COVID-19 vaccine, Turkovac, has received emergency use authorisation by Turkish authorities and will be open to use from next weekend, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on Wednesday.

Turkey began developing Turkovac this year, but the launch date for the vaccine has been beset by delays.

Turkey has already administered more than 125 million doses of vaccines using shots developed by China's Sinovac and by Pfizer/BioNTech, with more than 51 million having received two doses of the vaccines. It has also begun administering boosters shots.

Koca was speaking at the vaccine's manufacturing facility in the southeastern province of Şanlıurfa.

"As of today, we have become one of the nine countries producing a COVID-19 vaccine," he said.

Turkovac will be in widespread use as of next week, Koca stressed.

Since early in the vaccine's development, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has vowed to make it available globally, saying it will be used to benefit all humanity.

"Our COVID-19 vaccine Turkovac, which has come to the production and usage stage by receiving the necessary approvals, is a symbol of our efforts to protect our nation against the pandemic in the most effective way," Erdoğan said in a statement.