Kianoush Jahanpour announced that the import of 40 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine into the country by the end of summer and the beginning of fall had been finalized.
The official also stated that more than 21 million doses have already been imported into the country and clarified that a plan is underway for importing an additional 40 million doses, while homegrown vaccines are also being mass-produced.
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The spokesman underlined that “at least 120 million doses of imported and domestically-produced vaccines have been prepared for public vaccination."
Jahanpour noted, furthermore, that there is no ban on importing any approved brand of coronavirus vaccines such as AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Moderna, etc., and any brand approved by the World Health Organization or the Food and Drug Administration of Iran, except for those manufactured in the United States and Britain, will be used in the country."
Meanwhile, Iran’s Health Ministry announced on Thursday that 14,229,120 people have so far received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. In contrast, 3,531,142 others have received the second dose, taking the total number of vaccine doses delivered in the country to 17,760,262.
The ministry clarified that 568 people had lost their lives over the past 24 hours, while the total number of deaths from the deadly disease has reached 96,215.
Iran has sped up its vaccination campaign against COVID-19 since last month after the health ministry announced it could utilize abundant supplies of foreign doses and regular deliveries of vaccines being manufactured within Iran.
Given the deadly sanctions imposed by the United States government, the Iranian government has mostly relied on home-grown capacities to tackle one of the harshest outbreaks in the Middle East.
Iran has already received a number of batches of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccines, Sinopharm doses developed in China, and a batch of COVAXIN vaccines developed in India.