700,000 Doses of AstraZeneca Vaccine Shipped to Iran
Iran’s Food and Drug Organization spokesman announced the loading and shipment of the first batch of coronavirus vaccine through the COVAX mechanism to Iran.
Kianush Jahanpour announced on Twitter on Sunday that the first batch of vaccine procured through the COVAX mechanism, comprising over 700,000 doses of Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, was loaded and shipped from Amsterdam to Tehran.
According to him, Iran’s total purchase order from the COVAX basket amounts to 16 million and 800,000 doses of coronavirus vaccine, and these 700,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine were produced by South Korean company SK Bioscience.
On April 1st, the fifth batch of Russian “Sputnik V” vaccine was also sent to Iran, containing 100,000 doses of coronavirus vaccine. However, the slow pace of vaccination in Iran has sparked considerable criticism and warnings. Some Iranian medical officials have reported “missed opportunities” in importing coronavirus vaccines.
Iran has not yet released updated vaccination statistics, but as of March 28th, only 161,601,000 doses of vaccine had been administered in Iran, equivalent to less than two-tenths of a percent of Iran’s total population.
The total coronavirus vaccines imported into the country, including the 700,000-dose AstraZeneca shipment, stands at 1 million and 685,000 doses, which, considering that 100,000 doses of Cuban vaccine are experimental, brings the number of vaccines available for injection to the target population to 1 million and 585,000 doses.
This comes as some of Iran’s neighbors have accelerated their vaccination processes. For example, the Republic of Azerbaijan, which had administered only 500,000 doses to its citizens the previous week, reached nearly 1 million people on Sunday, with over half of them having received the second dose of vaccine, and 4 million doses of vaccine also entered the country in mid-last week.
Turkey has also vaccinated 11.5 percent of its population so far, with 8.5 percent of them also receiving the second dose of vaccine.
Saudi Arabia has vaccinated approximately 5 million people, the United Arab Emirates 8.5 million people, Qatar 900,000 people, Kuwait 600,000 people, and Bahrain 800,000 people from their populations.
Source: Radio Farda
