TEHRAN – Nicaragua received 200,000 doses of vaccines against COVID-19 from Iran on Tuesday.

"Thank God, COVIRAN vaccines arrive from the Islamic Republic of Iran this afternoon. We are deeply grateful to continue vaccinating 200,000 people and protecting ourselves," Nicaraguan Vice President Rosario Murillo said.

According to a study, the effectiveness of the Iranian-made COVIRAN vaccine in fighting the coronavirus has been more than foreign rivals, namely Sinopharm, AstraZeneca, and Sputnik. With these vaccines, the Nicaraguan authorities hope to increase the population vaccinated against covid-19, which until this morning constituted "almost 93 percent " with a single dose and 85 percent with the full schedule.

The signing ceremony of the Memorandum of Understanding for sending the COVIRAN vaccine to Nicaragua was held on March 17, in the presence of the directors of the Barakat Pharmaceutical Group, the Nicaraguan Ambassador to Iran Isaac Lenin Bravo Jaen, and representatives of the Ministry of Health and Foreign Affairs.

Made by researchers at the Headquarters for Executing the Order of the Imam, COVIRAN Barkat was unveiled on December 29, 2020, and received the license for public use on June 14, 2021.

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

The study was performed on 1.8 million people in Fars province from the beginning of the vaccination process till October 2021, which considered four vaccines of Sinopharm, AstraZeneca, COVIRAN, and Sputnik, Younes Panahi, the deputy minister of health for research and technology, said in March.

COVIRAN vaccine was 87 percent effective in protecting against coronavirus infection and 86 percent effective against Covid-related hospitalization, compared with 84 percent and 82 percent, respectively for AstraZeneca. Sinopharm came in third with 80 percent and 72 percent, respectively.

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

FB/MG