Turkey names home-grown COVID-19 jab Turkovac

Turkey's president on Tuesday named the country's indigenously developed coronavirus vaccine candidate Turkovac.

The vaccine development program, which continue with volunteers in the Phase 3 clinical trials, started at the Ankara City Hospital in the country's capital with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan attending via videoconference.

Speaking at the event, Erdogan said Turkey stepped up its mass inoculation efforts with vaccines imported from Germany and China, but that domestic vaccines would help control infection in the broader future.

"Turkey will lower the COVID-19 vaccination eligibility age to 18 in the coming weeks," said Erdogan.