TEHRAN, Dec. 22 (Xinhua) -- Iran started registration of volunteers for the first phase of human trial of its COVID-19 vaccine on Tuesday, the official IRNA news agency reported.

"By the license of the Ministry of Health and after the successful stages of vaccine testing, the registration of people who wish to participate in the (human) testing phase of the Iranian novel coronavirus vaccine begins today," Mohammad Mokhber, chief of the Executive Staff of Imam Command, was quoted as saying.

"Those people who are interested and have the required age and physical condition can register in this national project," Mokhber added.

On Tuesday, Iran, one of the worst-hit countries by the coronavirus in the Middle East, reported a total of 1,170,743 COVID-19 cases, including 54,003 deaths.

Iran announced its first cases of COVID-19 on Feb. 19.