Turkey has made significant progress in developing vaccines and drugs against COVID-19, in collaboration with the state and private sector and universities, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Sunday.

"Turkey has become the third country after the U.S. and China to develop vaccines locally according to WHO," Erdoğan told the inauguration ceremony of Turkey's Scientific and Technological Research Council (TÜBITAK)site: Centers of Excellence and Kocaeli University Health Facilities and Research Center in Gebze.

"COVID-19 Turkey Platform, founded by TÜBITAK, is currently working on eight different vaccines and 10 different medicine projects [for COVID-19]," he added.

Trials on animals for two candidate vaccines have been completed. One of them even received ethical clearance and started its clinical phase on humans, the president further said.

Turkey has so far confirmed 239,622 cases and 222,656 recoveries from the novel coronavirus, with the death toll standing at 5,829.

Since it originated in China last December, the coronavirus pandemic has claimed over 727,700 lives in 188 countries and regions.

More than 19.68 million COVID-19 cases have been reported around the world so far, with over 11.96 million, according to figures compiled by the US' Johns Hopkins University.

The US, Brazil, India, and Russia are currently the worst-hit countries in the world.