Chinese vaccine delivery to Turkey postponed

ANKARA

A Chinese coronavirus vaccine delivery to Turkey was postponed Sunday for "one or two days," the Turkish health minister announced.

The latest snag was caused by an emergency in Beijing customs due to the discovery of a novel coronavirus case there, Fahrettin Koca said on Twitter.

As a result of the incident, customs mobility has been temporarily suspended, Koca explained.

The first batch of 3 million doses of the Chinese SinoVac vaccine had been expected to arrive in Turkey on Dec. 28.

State of emergency

China declared a state of emergency across all districts of its capital Beijing amid surging COVID-19 cases.

Travel was halted in and out of areas where the virus was detected, while inspections and controls were tightened at all points, according to local media.

The state of emergency continues in the capital due to the successive detection of cases in Shunyi district, which is located in the northeast of the capital and near Beijing Capital International Airport.

Also, some airport employees reportedly reside in Shunyi.