Turkey, Russia to cooperate on vaccine research

Turkey's health minister says Turkey and Russia have agreed to cooperate in the development of a coronavirus vaccine and plan to carry out joint clinical trials. Fahrettin Koca said Wednesday that scientific advisers from both countries are scheduled to hold a second round of talks on the cooperation later this week.

A total of 22 Turkish universities and research are working to develop a vaccine and four of them have advanced to the animal testing stage, he said. The minister also said that Turkey has seen the benefit of the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine and will continue to administer it to COVID-19 patients, despite concerns raised over the drug.

Koca said unlike other countries, Turkey has been administering the drug to treat COVID-19 patients at the early stage of the disease.