Coronavirus: Turkey says China’s CoronaVac vaccine 91.25 per cent effective
- Health minister says results are first to be released for the Sinovac product; the firm recently delayed an announcement to consolidate data from global trials
- Turkey is expecting a shipment of 3 million doses on Monday, as part of a deal for 50 million doses
An experimental Covid-19 vaccine developed by Chinese biopharmaceutical company Sinovac is 91.25 per cent effective, a Turkish health official said on Thursday.
Dr Serhat Unal, an infectious disease expert serving on Turkey’s medical board, said the finding is based on early results of late-stage trials in the country and added that the vaccine is safe.
CoronaVac is a so-called inactivated vaccine developed by Sinovac Biotech. Unal announced the initial results following randomised trials involving 7,371 volunteers.
Turkey’s Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said in the press conference the results were the first to be announced for CoronaVac.
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China’s Sinovac Covid-19 vaccine proves more than 50 per cent effective in Brazil trials
Media reports said Sinovac delayed announcing results from late-stage trials until January to consolidate data from other countries where trials took place.