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Iran to import 40mn doses of COVID-19 vaccine by summer’s end, no ban on Pfizer, Moderna vaccines

Kianoush Jahanpour, the spokesman of Iran’s Food and Drug Administration

The spokesman of Iran’s Food and Drug Administration says the country will import 40 million doses of coronavirus vaccine by the end of summer, emphasizing that the country considers no ban on importing Pfizer and Moderna vaccines made in countries other than the US and the UK.

Kianoush Jahanpour made the announcement on Thursday, saying the import of 40 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine into the country by the end of summer and the beginning of fall has been finalized.

Jahanpour said more than 21 million doses of coronavirus vaccine have so far been imported into the country and a plan is underway for importing another 40 million doses, while homegrown vaccines are being mass-produced as well.

“At least 120 million doses of imported and domestically-produced vaccines have been prepared for public vaccination,” the spokesman underlined.

“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,” Jahanpour noted.

Meanwhile, Iran’s Health Ministry announced on Thursday that 14,229,120 people have so far received the first dose of the coronavirus vaccine and 3,531,142 others have received the second dose, taking the total number of vaccine doses injected in the country to 17,760,262.

The ministry also said that 568 people have lost their lives over the past 24 hours and the total number of deaths from the deadly disease has reached 96,215.

Iran has accelerated its inoculation drive against the coronavirus since last month after the health ministry announced it can rely on abundant supplies of foreign jabs as well as regular deliveries of vaccines that are being manufactured inside Iran.

Facing a series of inhumane sanctions imposed by the United States, the Iranian government has mostly relied on home-grown capacities to tackle one of the harshest outbreaks of the coronavirus in the Middle East.

Iran has already taken delivery of a number of batches of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccines, Sinopharm jabs developed in China, and a batch of COVAXIN vaccines developed in India.


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