TEHRAN – The seventeenth consignment of coronavirus vaccines, amounting to 2.22 million doses, was imported by the Iranian Red Crescent Society on Thursday.

So far, a total of 20.390 million doses of the vaccine have been imported, IRCS head Karim Hemmati said, IRNA reported.

President Ebrahim Raisi has confirmed that 30 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine will be imported.

“All public and private sectors, real and legal persons, and individuals must be coordinated and unanimous to control the spread of this dangerous virus,” Raisi said on August 14.

Raisi highlighted that it is not solely enough to draft and announce health protocols, adding that if an individual disobeys the protocols and causes people to get sick, he has violated their rights.

In his August 11 televised address, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Ali Khamenei suggested that containing the rapidly increasing wave of the Coronavirus is the first and foremost issue of the country.
Placing great emphasis on the fulfillment of duties and the implementation of decisions regarding the Coronavirus pandemic, Ayatollah Khamenei said “the vaccine, whether imported or domestically produced, must be provided with double effort and in any way possible made available to all people."

"Fortunately, with the production of the domestic vaccine, its foreign import route is also paved, while before that, despite the payment for the vaccine, foreign sellers failed to fulfill their commitments," the Leader said, urging officials to take importation and production of vaccine seriously.

The Leader asked the people to observe the health protocols, saying, "Exactly like in the first days of the Covid-19 pandemic, people must fully follow the instructions and guidelines.”

World Health Organization (WHO) representative to Iran Jaffar Hussain said on Wednesday that three million doses of vaccine will be delivered soon to the country under the COVAX facility.

The COVAX Facility is a partnership, co-led by Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), Gavi-The Vaccine Alliance, and the WHO, alongside key delivery partner United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).

Iran has purchased 16.8 million doses, while roughly 5.8 million doses have already arrived in the country, and three million is expected to receive by the coming days, he stated.

Other countries can also donate vaccines through the COVAX facility, like Japan that is going to provide close to 3 million doses of vaccine to Iran, Hossein explained.

Hossein paid a visit to a COVID-19 vaccination center in Tehran on Wednesday and injected a vaccine into one of the clients.

Iran has received the first shipment of vaccines from the COVAX, included over 700,000 doses of Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine manufactured by South Korean firm SK Bioscience, and the second one consisted of 1,452,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine manufactured by Catalent Anagni of Italy.

Earlier this month, Hussain issued a statement, saying that it is encouraging to see an acceleration in coronavirus vaccination in Iran that started early August.

WHO acknowledges greatly the increase in frequency of vaccination recently after deployment of international and locally-made vaccines.

MG