FILE PHOTO: A man works in a laboratory of Chinese vaccine maker Sinovac Biotech, developing an experimental coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine, during a government-organized media tour in Beijing, China, Sept. 24, 2020. REUTERS/Thomas Peter
December 27, 2020
ANKARA (Reuters) – The delivery of the first shipment of Sinovac’s COVID-19 vaccine from China to Turkey has been postponed “1-2 days” due to a case of the coronavirus in Beijing customs, Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on Sunday.
Turkey has agreed to purchase 50 million doses of Sinovac’s CoronaVac and was expecting the first delivery of 3 million doses on Monday. It will also procure 4.5 million doses of the vaccine developed by BioNTech and Pifzer, with an option to get 30 million more doses later.
“Due to the COVID-19 alarm in Beijing and a COVID-19 case at the Beijing customs, mobility at customs has been temporarily suspended. For this reason, the arrival of our vaccines, which were supposed to depart after customs operations, will be late by 1-2 days,” Koca said on Twitter.
(Reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu; Editing by Alison Williams)
