Turkovac could put an end to the apparent lethargy to get vaccinated among the Turkish public and reduce hesitation about the other two vaccines available. New shipments of the coronavirus jab developed by Turkish scientists are being delivered across Turkey this week, expanding the reach of the new vaccine that has been available in limited supply at city hospitals in past weeks.

Authorities expect Turkovac to be just the shot in the arm the lagging vaccination program needs. Although largely successful, the lack of a third or booster shots being administered, necessary since vaccine efficacies expire over time, threatens to put the program in danger. Turkovac is available both as a first dose for the unvaccinated and as a booster shot for those vaccinated with other jabs, including CoronaVac, an inactive vaccine like Turkovac and the first to be offered against COVID-19 in Turkey.

"People are hugely interested. All our vaccine appointments are full now," Bahattin Bayar, chief physician at Muş State Hospital in the eponymous eastern province, says, adding: "This is good news for us." Muş is among the provinces with relatively lower rates of vaccination compared to provinces in other regions. Like its neighbors Bingöl, Diyarbakır and Batman, it has a vaccination rate below 65%. Though the number of cases is somewhat lesser than most other provinces (around 366 per 100,000 according to the latest figures from the last week of January), it seeks to boost the vaccination rate. Driving up the rate is necessary to achieve mass immunity against the pandemic, a goal Turkey is yet to achieve since the coronavirus made its foray into the country in March 2020 and the inoculation drive kicked off on January 2021.

"I preferred Turkovac as my COVID-19 vaccine because I trust my country and its scientists," Metin Şener, a Muş resident who had his first dose with Turkovac, told Anadolu Agency (AA). "I have been waiting for this for months. Everyone should get their Turkovac," Cahit Yakışan, another citizen who was inoculated at the Muş hospital, said.

Some 1,500 kilometers (932 miles) in the west, Metin Ayrancı shares the same feeling. The health care worker from Edirne, who had his first two doses of CoronaVac, said he waited for Turkovac to get his third shot. "As (modern Turkey’s founder) Atatürk once said, ‘entrust me to Turkish physicians.’ I trust the Turkish health care system and had my first dose with our local, national vaccine," he told AA on Monday.

In Edirne’s neighbor Tekirdağ, some 3,800 people were administered their Turkovac doses in the span of a day. "We are pleased to see more people preferring Turkovac," Lütfi Çağatay Onar, chief physician of a local hospital told AA. Onar also reassured the public about the number of daily cases. "It does not mean that the vaccines do not protect them. On the contrary, we see very, very low number of hospitalizations nowadays (thanks to vaccination)," he added.

Turkey launched studies to develop its first vaccine to combat the pandemic back in 2020 and under the coordination of the Health Ministry and science bodies, with researchers racing against time to develop jabs and drugs. Turkovac, which wrapped up its final trials last year and received emergency use approval in December, was the first local vaccine against COVID-19, developed by a team at Erciyes University. Last month, human trials were also launched for an adenovirus vaccine, which can be administered orally or nasally.

Mass vaccination helped cushion the impact of omicron, a fast-spreading variant responsible for the majority of cases, including President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and first lady Emine Erdoğan who are experiencing mild infections. The country broke new records in daily cases in the past weeks due to omicron but hospitalizations remained low according to the Health Ministry. However, recent figures show that fatalities are gradually rising above 200 daily, though the number of cases is around 83,000 as of Monday. Authorities say the omicron variant poses more of a risk to senior citizens, the unvaccinated and people with chronic illnesses.

Turkey lifted most pandemic-related restrictions and does not plan to impose new ones. However, the Health Ministry repeatedly calls on citizens to keep up their own measures, like wearing protective masks, adhering to social distancing, staying away from crowded places and heeding hygiene rules.