TEHRAN – Italy has donated 1.2 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine to Iran under the COVAX facility, Ambassador Giuseppe Perrone said on Monday.

“Italy's donation to Iran shows the deep solidarity and the long-standing friendship between the two countries.

Italy and Iran were among the countries that suffered the most at the beginning of the pandemic, and both were put to a test,” Perrone said during the donation ceremony on Monday.

In addition to the Iranian officials from the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Iran's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and representatives of the United Nations in Iran, prominent Italian virologists, Professor Bassetti of the San Marino Polyclinic and Professor Pontali of Galliera Hospital in Genoa, and officials of Atieh Hospital in Tehran were present at the ceremony held at the ambassador's residence in Tehran.

The donation will be delivered by UNICEF in the coming days.

Italy earlier allocated €100,000 to the WHO for activities of prevention and awareness of the population in Iran towards socially responsible behavior and another €100,000 to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies for treatment of patients affected by the epidemic in Iran.

Iran has recently accelerated its vaccination rollout and is now administering in the range of one million doses per day. So far, 20 percent of the population has received both doses. However, the pandemic continues to strongly affect the country's unvaccinated population.

Vaccination reduced the mortality rate among the elderly aging 60 or above by 30 percent, and the trend is declining.

Studies show that people who are not vaccinated are 4.5 times more likely to develop COVID-19 than those who are fully vaccinated, and 10 and 11 times more likely to be hospitalized and die, respectively.

FB/MG