“This is the 57th consignment of [COVID-19] vaccines to have entered the country,” said Mehrdad Jamal Aronghi, the deputy head of Iran’s Customs Administration.
Meanwhile, the first single-dose consignment of coronavirus vaccines for 3-to-17-year-olds have also entered the country.
“Today, 6 million single-dose coronavirus vaccines from a total of 12 million recommended doses for those between 3 and 17 years old have arrived in the country and handed over to the health ministry,” said Mohammadhassan Qosian, the secretary general of the Iranian Red Crescent Society (IRCS).
He said the IRCS has, so far, imported more than 46 million doses of Covid vaccines.
“As scheduled, we will import larger shipments of Sinopharm vaccines every week or twice a week,” he said.
Meanwhile, Iran’s President Ebrahim Raeisi said on Saturday nearly 50 million Covid vaccine shots have been administered to Iranian citizens so far.
Raeisi noted that Iran is reaching the goal of vaccinating 70 percent of the population, adding “We are reaching a point where we should plan on removing Covid-related restrictions instead of imposing new ones”.
Health authorities said on Saturday that 280 more people had died of the Coronavirus in the previous 24 hours. That pushes the death toll from the start of the pandemic to more than 119,000. Meanwhile, 10,843 new infections were detected from Friday to Saturday.
A huge rise in vaccine imports and production inside Iran has accelerated the vaccination drive in the country over the past few weeks.
