Iran’s Red Crescent says the shipment contains 1,110,000 doses of vaccine. The head of the Red Crescent, Karim Hemmati, said the organization is continuing to import two Covid vaccine consignments each week.
According to Hemmati, the Red Crescent imports the shipments from China and delivers the vaccines to the Ministry of Health after collecting them at Imam Khomeini Airport.
Hemmati added that Iran gas so far imported 17 shipments including 20,390,000 doses.
He said the Red Crescent has taken a series of measures to help contain the pandemic such as speeding up imports; forming the Covid headquarters; participating in the vaccination campaign; setting up makeshift hospitals; implementing health programs to prevent further expansion of the disease; checking travelers arriving by air, land and sea; and developing the production of syringes.
Iran has had difficulty importing vaccines since the pandemic began in early 2020. Authorities blame this on US sanctions. They say the sanctions make it extremely difficult to make payments for the imports. Delays in vaccine purchases and the resulting slow vaccination rollout caused public anger in the country.
To fight the pandemic, Iran is partly depending on home-grown vaccines too.
