ANKARA

Turkey on Friday announced approval for the emergency use of Russia’s coronavirus vaccine, the country's health minister said Friday.

"Emergency use of Sputnik V vaccine was approved following the assessments and evaluations by our Turkish Medicines and Medical Devices Agency," Fahrettin Koca said on Twitter.

The Russian vaccine will become the third vaccine in use in Turkey against COVID-19, following China’s Sinovac and the BioNTech jabs, he added.

Koca previously told reporters that Turkey had signed an agreement to receive 50 million doses of the Russian vaccine over six months starting in May.

Since starting a mass COVID-19 vaccination campaign in mid-January, Turkey has administered over 22.8 million jabs. More than 13.7 million people have received their first doses, while 9.1 million have been fully vaccinated.