TEHRAN – Bulgaria has delivered 2.83 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccines against Covid-19 to Iran, IRNA reported.

The doses were delivered on April 9 and were welcomed at a ceremony attended by Bulgaria’s ambassador to Iran, Nikolina Kuneva.

“During the global pandemic, the joint efforts and cooperation are the only way to recovery and resilience,” Bulgaria’s Foreign Ministry said.

The total number of vaccines imported into the country from the beginning of February 2020, reached 158,056,808 doses.

In March, Iran received 2,191,500 doses of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines donated by the German Government.

However, Iran is the sixth country in the world and the first country in West Asia to gain the ability to produce the Coronavirus vaccine.

The country is able to produce 600 million doses of vaccine against coronavirus annually thanks to the capacity of knowledge-based companies, according to Bahram Daraei, head of the Food and Drug Administration.

A total of 21 knowledge-based companies are operating to produce 50 million doses of vaccine monthly and 600 million doses annually.

Exporting vaccines

Health Minister Bahram Einollahi has said the country is currently exporting domestically-made vaccines for coronavirus to ten African countries.

“We started exporting coronavirus vaccines one or two weeks ago,” he said, adding, “For the time being, Iranian-made vaccines are being exported to ten African countries.”

On January 28, the process for global registration of the Iranian-made “COVIRAN Barkat” vaccine started by holding a virtual meeting with the World Health Organization officials.

COVIRAN is the first vaccine in West Asia that is in the process of global registration.

According to a new study, the effectiveness of the COVIRAN vaccine in fighting the coronavirus has been more than foreign rivals, namely Sinopharm, AstraZeneca, and Sputnik.

FB/MG