The 10th shipment of Chinese Covid-19 vaccines containing 1.12 million doses arrived at Imam Khomeini International Airport on Aug. 1.
Iran has so far imported 11.52 million doses of coronavirus vaccines, IRNA reported.
“About 75-80% of Iran’s Covid-19 vaccines have been imported from China,” Majid Reza Hariri, chairman of Iran-China Chamber of Commerce, told ILNA recently.
The third shipment of AstraZeneca vaccines containing 725,940 doses arrived in Iran from Japan on July 30.
"A total of 2.91 million doses of vaccines have been imported from Japan to Iran," Mehrdad Jamal Orounagi, the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration’s technical deputy, was quoted as saying by IRNA.
Russia, India, Italy and South Korea are other sources of vaccine imports.
On July 28, the first batch of Covid-19 vaccines imported by Iran’s private sector arrived from Russia on Wednesday.
According to Nasser Riahi, chairman of Iranian Pharmaceutical Importers Association, the shipment includes 320,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine.
“Nearly 380,000 doses will arrive next week and by August 22, one million doses of vaccines under this contract will be imported,” he was quoted as saying by ISNA.
“This shipment has nothing to do with the proposal made by Iran Chamber of Commerce on vaccination of workers. These vaccines were purchased by a private company and put at the disposal of Health Ministry to be used for the vaccination of the general public,” he added.
Cobel Darou, one of the biggest pharmaceutical companies in Iran, is the importer of these vaccines from the Russian drugmaker R-Pharm, ILNA reported.
Earlier this year, the private sector announced it has signed a deal to import six million doses of Covid-19 vaccines.
“Imports of the vaccines will be financed by business owners, manufacturers and executive managers of companies at the market exchange rate for the free vaccination of their workers,” Masoud Khansari, the head of Tehran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture, said then.
“Notably, importers will supply the vaccine on a not-for-profit basis as per the license issued by Health Ministry and the supervision of National Coronavirus Headquarters,” he was quoted as saying by Fars News Agency.
