Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has received his COVID-19 vaccine in front of live TV cameras on Thursday. A spokesman for his AK Party said it to be a move that aims to clear any public doubts about the effectiveness of the shot.
Turkey began to administer the shots developed by China’s Sinovac to health workers on Thursday, rolling out a nationwide vaccination program against a disease that has killed more than 23,000 people in the country. So far, 250,000 health workers in Turkey have been vaccinated.
Erdogan received his first dose of the CoronaVac vaccine at the Ankara City Hospital. He reached there with Health Minister Fahrettin Koca, who received his first dose of vaccine in the country a day earlier.
Speaking to reporters outside the hospital, Erdogan said he and senior members of the AK Party were all getting vaccinated, and he also urged other politicians to take the vaccine.