Turkey in talks with Germany, China, Russia on vaccine trials, says minister

ANKARA

Turkey is in talks with Russia, Germany and China about conducting trials on humans for coronavirus vaccines developed in those countries, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on Aug. 19.

“Germany and China have applied to conduct the Phase 3 trials in Turkey and have presented pre-clinical trial results, while Ankara wants to see pre-clinical results from Russia before the trials,” said Koca.

Speaking at a news conference in Ankara following a meeting with the Coronavirus Scientific Advisory Board, he said there were 13 vaccines being developed in Turkey, three of which have gone beyond the animal testing phase.

“I may say that the applications from China and Germany have satisfied us. We are still in contact with Russia to conduct the trials on humans,” added Koca.

“The number of cases is on the rise. Every rise should be a warning,” said Koca, adding, “But we should not feel defeated.”

Within days the number of Turkey’s daily COVID-19 tests will reach 100,000, he said.

The minister also introduced two new systems in the fight against COVID-19.

One is called “Tele-Medicine” and any patient resting at home will be able to communicate with their doctor via video call.

The other includes updates to the smartphone application “Hayat Eve Sığar” (Life Fits Home), which tracks patients who are coronavirus-positive and marks their addresses, in which “risky places in provinces” will be marked to show where people can get infected.

Turkey mostly lifted a partial lockdown on June 1. For three weeks last month, new cases had hovered just under 1,000.

Ankara recently imposed fines on those who do not wear masks and maintain social distancing in public.