The Iranian private sector has started the process of importing Covid-19 vaccines, as the country grapples with the fourth wave of the pandemic.
“The private sector has signed a deal to import six million doses of Covid-19 vaccines,” says Masoud Khansari, the head of Tehran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture, said on Tuesday.
“The import of vaccine will be financed by business owners, manufacturers and managers of companies at the open market rate for the free vaccination of their workers,” he was quoted as saying by Fars News Agency.
“Notably, importers will supply the vaccine on a not-for-profit basis under the license issued by the Health Ministry and the supervision of National Coronavirus Headquarters.”
According to Chairman of Iranian Pharmaceutical Importers Association Nasser Riahi, it will cost between 2-2.5 million rials ($8.3-$10.4) to get each Covid-19 vaccine imported by the private sector and employers are expected to pick up the tab to cover the cost of vaccinating their employees.
Earlier this month, the Iranian government announced that private companies are allowed to purchase and import vaccines.
The governor of Central Bank of Iran said on Tuesday that the bank is prepared to meet foreign currency needs for importing Covid-19 vaccine.
In a note posted on his social media account, Abdolnasser Hemmati added that CBI has allocated $100 million for vaccine purchase.
"Allocations will continue as per the request of Health Ministry," he wrote in a note on Instagram.
CBI gave forex for purchasing the vaccines at the subsidized rate (1 US dollar=42,000 rials), lower than a quarter of the rate in the open market.
Cheap currency is given only to import essential goods such as food, medicine and raw materials for manufacturing companies.
Pointing to the surge in Covid cases, Hemmati said supplying the vaccine and vaccination must be the most important goal of the country.
“Despite the US economic sanctions and tough restrictions on money transfer, CBI has endeavored to make available the vaccines,” he said.
"CBI will meet all the currency needs to purchase the vaccine at the request of the Health Ministry. So far, forex has been provided for importing vaccine from China and Russia."
Iran has finalized an agreement with Moscow for the purchase of 60 million doses of coronavirus vaccine Sputnik V, according to Iran's ambassador to the country, Kazem Jalali.
Hemmati said the bank will also give priority to the forex needs of private companies wanting to import vaccines.
Last week, President Hassan Rouhani said private drug companies can also import the vaccine, as vaccines being produced by domestic firms will not become available before the summer.
Referring to the contract with Covax, based on which 16.8 million doses of vaccine are to be sold to Iran, the senior banker said prepayment has been made and the import process has started.
Covax is a global initiative operating under World Health Organization, which brings together governments and manufacturers to ensure Covid-19 vaccines reach those in greatest need. The initiative strives for fair and equitable distribution of vaccine doses. Iran announced in October that it had joined Covax.
Iran recently received 700,000 AstraZeneca jabs under Covax. So far, 621,822 people have received the shots in two months since the start of the national vaccination campaign, ISNA reported, citing Health Ministry data.
The fourth wave of the disease emerged soon after the Iranian New Year holidays in early April, prompting the government to announce new lockdowns. Over 2.3 million people have been infected with the new coronavirus in Iran so far.
Mass Vaccination
President Rouhani on Tuesday said the mass vaccination of Iranians against Covid-19 tops the government’s agenda, as the country tackles a fourth wave of the outbreak.
“The procurement and production of coronavirus vaccines is the government’s top priority,” Rouhani was quoted as saying by President.ir
As of Tuesday, Iran administered 621,822 vaccine doses to immunize the public against the contagion, with the Health Ministry targeting to inoculate 1.3 million people by next week.
Several domestic companies have launched human trials for experimental coronavirus vaccines.
According to a member of NCH, Mostafa Qanei, a large number of vaccine shots will become available to the public by the end of the summer.
Iran’s first homegrown vaccine, jointly produced with Cuba, is set for rollout in late June, if the third phase of human trials proves the vaccine is safe for use.
Close to 100 hospitals across the province of Tehran are accepting Covid-19 patients and all ICU beds in Tehran are filled to capacity, a member of NCH, Nader Tavakkoli, was quoted as saying by IRNA.
Tavakkoli said the number of outpatients has doubled, which is not good news as it is always followed by a surge in hospitalizations.
The health official estimated that infections will continue their upward trend for at least another two weeks.
The number of cities on red alert in Iran spiked by 17% in the Health Ministry’s latest announcement to 301 cities and the number of low-risk cities dropped by four to only seven.
Iran reported nearly 25,500 new coronavirus cases within 24 hours, taking the national tally to 2.286 million, according to the Health Ministry’s update on Tuesday.
The ministry also registered 395 overnight fatalities, pushing the total toll to 67,525.
Over 1.81 million have recovered from the respiratory illness so far and some 4,900 are currently in ICU units.
Iran has carried out 14.6 million diagnostic tests since the start of the deadly pandemic in early 2020.
Businesses Suffer $12b in Losses
Businesses affiliated to Iran Chamber of Guilds have suffered as much as 3,000 trillion rials ($12 billion) in losses since the beginning of the pandemic, Mohammad Baqer Mojtabaie, general secretary of the chamber, said.
“However, only 7% of them applied for the loans backed by the government under the Covid-19 relief assistance program for businesses during the first quarter of last fiscal year (March 20-June 20, 2020),” he was quoted as saying by ISNA.
Noting that the volume of loans was negligible — 120-160 million rials ($480-$640) for each worker and up to a maximum three workers per enterprise — in relation to the losses suffered by guilds, Mojtabaie said, “The 12% lending rate was another reason behind the lukewarm reception of the government’s relief loan program. As the benchmark interest rate in Iran is at 18%, business owners believe that the government’s 6% interest rate subsidy is not worth the difficult application process and length of time it would take to receive the credit.”
Iran Chamber of Guilds recently issued a statement expressing concerns regarding the economic implications of a new surge in Covid-19 cases, Mehr News Agency reported.
“Official figures suggest an increase in the number of new infections due to the decline in compliance with Covid-19 safety protocols during the Iranian New Year holidays. More cities and counties are falling in the high-risk red zone for coronavirus transmission, hence the widespread closure of businesses is likely to ensue,” the statement read.
It went on to say, “If more cities, including Tehran, Karaj and Isfahan, move into the red zone of the country’s color-coded coronavirus framework, more than one million businesses affiliated to ICG will shut down and three million people will become jobless.”
He made the remarks before the provincial capitals were placed on red alert.
699K Jobs Salvaged by Relief Program
A total of 699,000 jobs were safeguarded throughout the coronavirus crisis as a result of loans backed by the government under the Covid-19 relief assistance program.
According to Alaeddin Azvaji, director general of Policymaking and Job Department of the Ministry of Cooperatives, Labor and Social Welfare, a total of 235 trillion rials ($940 million) in loans were allocated to 14 groups of businesses, including 858 subgroups in the first stage of the program.
In the second stage, which is still underway, the sectors of “transportation”, “tourism and handicraft industries”, “sports and youth” and “culture and art” were found eligible to receive, 37,000 billion rials ($148 million), 20,000 billion rials ($80 million), 8,000 billion rials ($32 million) and 18,000 billion rials ($72 million) in loans, respectively.
“So far, more than 513,000 economic enterprises signed up for Covid-19 relief assistance at Kara.mcls.gov.ir, of which 388,000 businesses have received low-interest loans [at 12% lending rate] and 125,000 are going through the loan process,” Azvaji was quoted as saying by Fars News Agency.
“Iran’s labor market experienced one of its worst crises last year [March 2020-21]. Surveys by the Statistical Center of Iran show nearly one million people lost their jobs compared with the year before. Figures of the Social Security Organization of Iran indicate that 998,000 insured people became redundant in the first quarter of last fiscal year [March 20-June 20, 2020].”
Noting that unofficial employment [jobs without health insurance and retirement benefits] accounts for 29% of Iran’s total number of jobs, Azvaji said, “An estimated 476,000 uninsured workers became jobless in Q1 of last year, which brought the total number of lost jobs to 1,474,000 then. However, SCI figures suggest that some of those who left the labor force last spring returned to work in the subsequent quarters.”
