Turkey, recording a six-month peak in its COVID-19 infections due to the spread of Omicron, rolled out its homegrown vaccine, Turkovac, with the assurances that it was “efficient” against the new variant.

“Though we have an increase in the people who have been infected largely due to the new Omicron variant, there are fewer people hospitalized and fewer deaths,” President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said after a three-hour Cabinet meeting Jan. 3, where the main issues were health and the much-awaited 30% increase in civil servants’ salaries.

Despite the Turkish Statistics Institute’s announcement earlier Monday that Turkey’s yearly inflation climbed by the fastest pace in 19 years, jumping to 36.8%, Erdogan determinedly painted a rosy photo on Turkey’s strengths. Saying that Turkey’s exports and economic growth soared despite the pandemic, the president trumpeted the new “national and local” vaccine, whose emergency use was authorized Dec. 22 despite misgivings from local medical circles. 

“With Turkovac, our homegrown vaccination, now at the service of our people, we have nothing to fear from the pandemic as long as people continue with social distancing and hygiene,” Erdogan said, as his health minister and medical experts warn of a new peak in COVID-19 cases.