Turkey sent 20,000 doses of the coronavirus vaccine to the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), the country’s top health official said Wednesday.
“20,000 thousand doses of Sinovac vaccine arrived in our country at 5 a.m. [0300 GMT] in the morning by air ambulance from the Republic of Turkey,” Health Minister Ali Pilli said in a statement.
Regarding the arrival of vaccines, Pilli said his country is planning to start vaccination on Thursday and Saturday.
“We have prepared our plan for vaccination, in the first phase they will be done in nine centers,” he said, noting the first ones to get vaccinated are the health professionals.
He said following the health workers, people aged 65 and over will get the vaccine.
“We are a small country but we will easily overcome this,” Pilli said.
Thanking Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Health Minister Fahrettin Koca for their support for the TRNC, Pilli underlined: “As always, Turkey is with us in the fight against coronavirus as well.”
Three million doses of the vaccine produced by Beijing-based company SinoVac reached Turkey on Dec. 30.