TEHRAN – World Health Organization (WHO) representative to Iran Jaffar Hussain has announced that three million doses of vaccine will be delivered soon to the country under the COVAX facility.

The COVAX Facility is a partnership, co-led by Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), Gavi-The Vaccine Alliance, and the WHO, alongside key delivery partner United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).

Iran has purchased 16.8 million doses, while roughly 5.8 million doses have already arrived in the country, and three million is expected to receive by the coming days, he stated.

Iran has purchased 16.8 million doses of vaccine under the COVAX facility.Other countries can also donate vaccines through the COVAX facility, like Japan that is going to provide close to 3 million doses of vaccine to Iran, Hossein explained.

Hossein paid a visit to a COVID-19 vaccination center in Tehran on Wednesday and injected a vaccine into one of the clients.

Iran has received the first shipment of vaccines from the COVAX, 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.

Earlier in August, Hussain has issued a statement, saying that it is encouraging to see an acceleration in coronavirus vaccination in Iran that started early August.

WHO acknowledges greatly the increase in frequency of vaccination recently after deployment of international and locally-made vaccines.

FB/MG