Turkey's COVID-19 vaccine shipment stuck in Beijing customs

A shipment of COVID-19 vaccines from China to Turkey was postponed by a "few days," Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on Dec. 28. The vaccine supply got stuck in Beijing customs, as operations halted when an employee tested positive for COVID-19.

Monday December 28 2020 10:58 am

Duvar English

Turkey's shipment of COVID-19 vaccines from China was postponed once again due to a customs employee's testing positive for COVID-19, Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on Dec. 28.

"Due to the COVID-19 alarm in Beijing and a COVID-19 case at 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 1-2 days late," Koca said on Twitter.

Pekin’deki COVID-19 alarmı ve Pekin gümrüğünde görülen COVID-19 vakası sebebiyle gümrük hareketliliğine geçici olarak ara verilmiştir. Bu nedenle gümrük işlemlerinden sonra yola çıkması beklenen aşılarımızın gelişi bir iki gün ertelenmiştir. Gelişmeleri aktarmaya devam edeceğiz. pic.twitter.com/G2GfEX1MXo
— Dr. Fahrettin Koca (@drfahrettinkoca) December 27, 2020

The shipment was originally scheduled for Dec. 11, but got postponed by two weeks, and was later pushed back again.

Turkey agreed to purchase 50 million doses of Sinovac's CoronaVac and was expecting the first delivery of 3 million doses on Dec. 28.

Ankara will also procure 4.5 million doses of the vaccine developed by BioNTech and Pifzer, with an option to get an additional 30 million doses at a later date.

Topics COVID-19 vaccine Turkey COVID-19 Turkey Turkish Fahrettin Koca