Turkey receives 6.5m doses of China's Sinovac COVID-19 vaccines

ISTANBUL -- Turkey received on Monday 6.5 million more doses of COVID-19 vaccines produced by the Chinese biopharmaceutical company Sinovac.

A Turkish Airlines cargo plane loaded with the vaccines landed at Istanbul Airport early in the morning from China's capital Beijing.

This latest delivery was part of a second planned shipment of 10 million doses, according to Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca.

The Minister said in a tweet on Sunday that the rest of the vaccines will be delivered in accordance with the procurement plan, and the mass inoculation program will continue without interruption in the country.

Turkey received the first batch of 3 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines from China at the end of December 2020 and launched the mass vaccine campaign on Jan 14.

According to the Health Ministry's data, more than 1.24 million citizens have been vaccinated so far.