Iran Takes Delivery of New Vaccine Consignment

Date: 18 June 2021 - 23:09

News ID: ۹۱۴۳۵

TEHRAN -- The Iranian Red Crescent Society (RCS) has taken delivery of one million doses of coronavirus vaccines amid a reported shortage in supplies that has caused delays to giving second shots to the elderly.
A spokesman of the Food and Drug Administration of Iran said on Thursday that the new consignment of vaccines had arrived in Tehran’s Imam Khomeini airport early in the morning.
Kianoush Jahanpour corrected a earlier statement by the RCS suggesting that the new batch of coronavirus vaccines had contained two million doses, saying the supply delivered to the health ministry had contained one million doses.
Earlier RCS statements suggest the international organization will import up to 7.5 million doses of coronavirus vaccines in the calendar month to June 21.
Authorities said earlier this month that most of the vaccines planned to be imported by the RCS will be the Chinese-made Sinopharm jabs and will be supplied by the Chinese Red Cross authority.
That comes as vaccination sites in Iran had reported a shortage of Sinopharm vaccines for second dose administrations planned for earlier this month.
Health ministry officials said last week that there would be no concerns about second shots while insisting that supplies will arrive in the country with a short delay.
Iran has been using coronavirus vaccine supplies from Russia and China to proceed with a nationwide inoculation program against the disease that kicked off in late December.
The government has vowed to accelerate vaccinations by introducing supplies of home-made jabs in the upcoming weeks.
Iran has been battling one of the largest outbreaks of coronavirus in the Middle East. Official daily death toll from the disease stood at 139 at noon local time on Thursday while authorities said the number of vaccinations carried out in the country had reached over 5.252 million.