On Wednesday, Turkey’s Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said that Ankara had ruled out the Russian vaccine as it did not meet conditions of “good laboratory practice”, as was reposted by Reuters.
“Russia was not able to fulfill this. Therefore, it was not possible for the WHO and the world to purchase this vaccine. It is not possible for this vaccine to receive a license from us either. Therefore, it is out of our area of interest,” he said.
Russia was the first country to grant regulatory approval for a novel COVID-19 vaccine, doing so before large-scale trials were complete. This, in turn, stirred concerns among scientists and doctors about the safety and efficacy of the shot.
Turkey, with a population of 83 million, ranked the 4th place in the world according to the daily number of newly infected people. Ankara has imposed full weekend lockdowns and weekday curfews to combat the sharp rise in deaths and infections. President Tayyip Erdogan has said citizens should be patient until the vaccines arrive.
According to "Apostrophe", in Moscow, doctors are forced to get vaccinated against coronavirus with the Russian vaccine "Sputnik V", which has not shown adequate effectiveness yet. Doctors are threatened with dismissal for refusal of vaccination.