TEHRAN – Iran will receive about 10 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine by early June if the supply process goes on according to schedule, Sadeq Tabrizi, a health ministry official, said on Monday.

A new shipment of the vaccine including 1.5 million doses will arrive in Iran on Thursday, he announced.

By mid-June, the domestically produced vaccine will be provided to the Ministry of Health, and the Iran-Cuba vaccine and the COVIRAN Barekat vaccine will also be approved and start mass production.

“It is predicted that by the end of June, we will have at least two domestically produced Iranian vaccines, and after that, in addition to the foreign vaccine, which will not be in large numbers, we will speed up vaccination by the homegrown ones,” he explained.

So far, about 3.2 million doses of vaccines have been imported, including Sputnik V from Russia, COVAXIN from India, AstraZeneca from South Korea, and a Chinese vaccine.

According to the Ministry of Health, some 1,378,744 people have received the first dose of vaccine and 276,667 people have received the second dose. The total number of injected vaccines in the country reached 1,655,411 doses.

Mass vaccination against COVID-19 started on Iranian citizens with the Russian-made Sputnik V vaccine on February 9.

While Iran continues efforts to mass-produce local candidates, several foreign vaccines have already been imported and others are expected soon.

Iran is currently producing vaccines jointly with three countries of Cuba, Russia, and Australia, which may also be released by September.

Domestic vaccines

COVIRAN BAREKAT, the first coronavirus vaccine made by Iranian researchers, started the third phase of the human trial in early May by being administrated to 20,000 people.

Developed by researchers at the Headquarters for Executing the Order of the Imam, the vaccine was unveiled on December 29, 2020, and started to be mass-produced on March 29.

Meanwhile, a vaccine developed by the Razi Vaccine and Serum Research Institute (Razi Cov Pars) is expected to become the second Iranian-made vaccine to be administered among the population in early August; which started the clinical trial on February 27.

Iran has also successfully completed the first phase of the human trial for Fakhra vaccine, the third domestically developed COVID-19 vaccine, named after nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh (he was assassinated in November 2020 near Tehran), that was unveiled and started the clinical trial on March 16.

“Osvid-19”, the fourth domestic vaccine produced by Osvah Pharmaceutical Company is also undergoing human trials, which will also be available in early September.

New cases and mortalities

In a press briefing on Monday, Health Ministry’s spokesperson, Sima-Sadat Lari, confirmed 18,408 new cases of COVID-19 infection, raising the total number of infections to 2,673,219. She added that 2,127,192 patients have so far recovered, but 5,533 remain in critical conditions of the disease.

During the past 24 hours, 351 patients have lost their lives, bringing the total number of deaths to 75,261, she added.

So far, 17,206,735 COVID-19 diagnostic tests have been performed in the country.

FB/MG