TEHRAN – The Governor of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) has said the bank has no problem in providing the necessary funding for the imports of Conid-19 vaccines into the country, IRIB reported on Sunday.

"The central bank, in cooperation with the country’s banking system, has provided the foreign currency needed to import Covid-19 vaccines and there is no problem in this regard," Akbar Komeijani said.

Komeijani stressed that despite all the problems, providing the foreign currency needed for the coronavirus vaccine has been and is one of the priorities of the country’s banking system.

He further noted that the vaccination of all employees of the country’s banks is being carried out vigorously, adding: "The necessary arrangements for injecting the second dose of the vaccine have already been made for next month."

In late July, Iran received two consignments of Sputnik V and AstraZeneca vaccines supplied by Russia and Japan, respectively.

The first batch of vaccines supplied by Japan had been imported on July 23.

Toshimitsu Motegi, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan, announced on July 13 that the Japanese government will donate 2.9 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to Iran through the COVAX facility.

Iran has also received two batches of vaccines from the COVAX facility. The first shipment included over 700,000 doses of Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine manufactured by South Korean firm SK Bioscience, and the second one consisted of 1,452,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine manufactured by Catalent Anagni of Italy.

The Islamic Republic is currently producing vaccines jointly with three countries of Cuba, Russia, and Australia, which may also be released by September, while two homegrown vaccines have so far received the emergency use license.

COVIRAN BAREKAT, the first coronavirus vaccine made by researchers at the Headquarters for Executing the Order of the Imam which was unveiled on December 29, 2020, started to be mass-produced on March 29.

EF/MA