Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca became the first recipient on Jan. 13, after the Turkish Medicine and Medical Devices Agency (TİTCK) granted emergency approval for the treatment.

Chinese Sinovac's treatment Coronavac was said to be 91.25-percent safe by Turkish researchers, although it was proven to be 50.4 percent effective in trials in Brazil, barely crossing the 50-percent threshold needed to receive approval. 

The vaccine will be administered to health workers first per the priority schedule created by the Health Ministry, and seniors over 65 who have chronic illnesses have second priority. 

Turkey also sent 20,000 doses of the treatment to Turkish Cyprus, as Ankara ordered some three million doses of Chinese Sinovac's vaccine in 2020. Koca has said that they were also working to obtain supplies of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.