ISTANBUL (Reuters) -Turkey has enough doses of COVID-19 vaccine at the moment and more shots will be coming soon from Russia and China, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday.
Speaking two days after his health minister warned that vaccines would become more scarce in the next two months, Erdogan said Turkey expected to receive a “serious” amount of doses from Moscow and Beijing.
Turkey has been using vaccines developed by China’s Sinovac Biotech and Pfizer/BioNTech so far. Nearly 14 million people, or 16% of the population, have had at least one shot and another 9 million have been fully inoculated.
“I don’t accept that we will have any issues with vaccine procurement,” Erdogan said.
“With the talks we are carrying out with Russia now, the Sputnik V vaccine is on its way,” he said, adding that he would speak to Russian President Vladimir Putin about the procurement if necessary.
Erdogan also said he would discuss vaccine supplies in the first half of May with Chinese President Xi Jinping and that more doses would also be delivered by BioNTech and Pfizer. “God willing, I believe it will be a magnificent situation.”
On Wednesday, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said Turkey had signed a deal for 50 million Sputnik V doses that would start to arrive in May and help address a short-term drop in supply.
Turkish medical authorities said on Friday they had granted an emergency use authorization for Sputnik V.
The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), which is responsible for marketing Sputnik V, said a Turkish firm would also produce the shot at its plants.
Later on Friday, Koca said Turkey would receive 1 million doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech shot in May and there were no issues with an option to procure another 30 million in June.
He said Turkey currently had a stock of 6 million vaccines from Sinovac and BioNTech, adding that the Sputnik V vaccine would begin to be administered “as soon as possible”.
Turkish state broadcaster TRT Haber reported on Friday that Koca and Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu would visit Russia on May 12 to discuss vaccines and tourism.
Russia is Turkey’s biggest source of foreign visitors, with about 6 million Russians visiting each year before the pandemic.
Moscow said earlier in April that it had restricted flights to and from Turkey until June 1 due to a rise in COVID-19 infections.
Turkey’s tourism revenues fell 40% and foreign visitor arrivals dropped 54% in the first quarter, data showed on Friday.
(Reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu; Additional reporting by Ali Kucukgocmen; Writing by Dominic Evans; Editing by Ece Toksabay and David Clarke)
