TEHRAN – The Embassy of Iran in Athens has announced that the government of Greece will donate a consignment of the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine to Iran on Thursday.

Following a meeting between Iranian Ambassador Ahmad Naderi and Greece Foreign Ministry’s Secretary-General for International Economic Affairs Ioannis Smyrlis, 200,000 doses of the vaccine will be sent to Tehran on Thursday morning.

Recently, Italy and Japan respectively donated 1.2 million and 700,000 doses of the vaccine under the COVAX facility to Iran.

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

Iran is one of the few countries that has all vaccine production platforms, Mohammad Reza Shanehsaz, former head of the Food and Drug Administration, said in June 2021.

Health Minister Bahram Einollahi has said five coronavirus vaccines have been so far produced domestically.

Meanwhile, World Health Organization (WHO) representative to Iran Jaffar Hussain said in September 2021 that the Organization was collecting the necessary information for the registration and certification of Iranian-made coronavirus vaccines.

MG