Turkey to offer Pfizer boosters for vaccinated travelers
Turkey will begin providing additional Pfizer jabs to fully vaccinated travelers wishing to visit countries that don't accept the Chinese-made Sinovac vaccine.
Turkey will offer an additional Pfizer-BioNTech dose to travelers inoculated with Sinovac's coronavirus vaccine, the Turkish Health Ministry said on Monday, in an effort to facilitate travel to countries that don’t recognize the Chinese-made jab.
Turkey, with a population of 83 million, has fully vaccinated more than half of Turkish citizens over 18 years of age. The country launched its inoculation campaign in January, first using Sinovac's Coronavac vaccine and later the US-made Pfizer-BioNTech shot.
As concerns mounted over the Chinese vaccine’s efficacy, Turkish health officials announced in July they would offer booster shots to health workers and people over 50. Some 6.6 million people have received a third dose so far, the Health Ministry says.
Under the new guidelines, travelers with two Sinovac doses and a Pfizer booster can receive a second jab of the American vaccine, Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on Monday.
