Turkey has recently begun administering a Chinese COVID-19 vaccine candidate to non-medical volunteers as part of phase-3 clinical trial.

Turkish officials said 20,000 people applied to volunteer for the trial on the first day of the announcement, and hundreds of citizens have received the experimental vaccine.

The Marmara University Hospital in Istanbul is one of the 25 Turkish centers for the clinical trial of the vaccine developed by China's Sinovac Biotech.

Dr. Volkan Korten, in charge of research at the hospital, stressed the volunteers have not suffered from any side effects from the vaccine.