A new shipment of Covid-19 vaccines has arrived in Iran, bringing the total volume of imports to 155.98 million doses, Rouhollah Latifi, spokesman of the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration, said on Jan. 26.
The new shipment included one million doses of AstraZeneca donated by Poland, which arrived on Wednesday morning.
Poland's Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced via Twitter, on Wednesday, that the country had donated one million Covid-19 vaccines for Afghan refugees in Iran.
The ministry wrote that the donation of Covid-19 vaccines was the second tranche of vaccine aid sent to Iran with a population of 83 million – the first was in October 2021.
“The total volume of imported AstraZeneca vaccines has reached 16.75 million doses, while the total volume of imported Sinopharm vaccines stands at 134 million doses, Sputnik V at 4.09 million and Bharat at 1.13 million doses,” he was quoted as saying by Mehr News Agency.
The Red Crescent Society of the Islamic Republic of Iran is the major importer of the jabs.
Monthly Covid-19 vaccine imports set a record, as more than 60 million doses entered Iran in the seventh month of the current fiscal year (Sept. 23-Oct. 22).
The total value of all Covid-19 vaccines imported to Iran from Feb. 3 to Sept. 12 stood at $421 million.
According to IRICA, each Sinopharm vaccine made in China costs $9.2, AstraZeneca made in China $4, AstraZeneca made in Japan $4, COVAX made in Italy $4, Sputnik V made in Russia $10, AstraZeneca made in Russia $6.5, COVAX made in South Korea $4 and AstraZeneca made in Austria $4 and Bharat (COVAXIN) made in India $14.5.
Brief Respite With Mass Vaccination
As much of the world sees vaccination slowing and infections soaring with the spread of Omicron, Iran has found a rare, if fleeting, respite from the anxiety and trauma of the pandemic, AP reported.
After successive virus waves pummeled the country for nearly two years, belated mass vaccination under the new government has, for a brief moment, left the stricken nation with a feeling of apparent safety.
Now, the specter of an Omicron-fueled surge looms large. Hospitals are preparing for the worst, as infections tick upward after a months-long lull. But so far, the variant has not battered the Islamic Republic as it has many Western countries where most adults got jabs a year ago.
Drastic infection surges among the inoculated from the United States to Russia have revealed the vaccine's declining defenses against infection even as its protection against hospitalization and death remains strong.
Most Iranians have received two doses of vaccines and are feeling off the hook with their immunity still robust.
"A large number of people already have contracted the virus and a wide-scale vaccination drive has taken place in recent months," Moayed Alavian, a health official, said in an attempt to explain the sharp drop in infections easing the burden on Iran's overwhelmed health system.
The virus has killed over 132,000 people by Iran's official count — the highest national toll in the Middle East.
Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi has made it a mission to expedite imports of foreign-made Covid-19 vaccines. The contrast is not lost on ordinary Iranians.
"I do not know what happened," said Reza Qasemi, a Tehran taxi driver. "Suddenly vaccination happened in a widespread and quick way after Raisi came to office."
Under Raisi, Iran is riding high on its successes against Covid-19. Cases have fallen to about 4,000 a day from some 40,000 just months before. The death toll plummeted to 30 a day this month from peaks of over 700. His administration has provided 180 million vaccines since taking the reins in August.
More than 88% of all of those eligible for vaccines have been fully vaccinated. Iran has administered booster shoots to 20% of its population.
Last week, the government announced it would make vaccines available to children under 18. Like many middle-income countries, Iran has relied on Sinopharm, the state-backed Chinese vaccine, but offers citizens a smorgasbord of other shots to choose from — Oxford-AstraZeneca, Russia's Sputnik V, Indian firm Bharat's Covaxin and its homegrown COVIran Barekat shot.
British-Swedish AstraZeneca makes up a substantial amount of Iran's inoculations. Although Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech remain forbidden, some Iranians have described receiving the American-made shots through a booming black market.
Iran's historically robust national vaccination program grew out of its battles against disease outbreaks from cholera to polio. In response to the El Tor strain of cholera that spawned a pandemic through the 1960s, Iran produced millions of vaccine doses, distributed American antibiotics to pilgrims and controlled the spread.
Coronavirus vaccination marks the nation's first mass inoculation campaign outside of childhood illnesses since the 1979 Islamic Revolution that toppled the Western-backed shah.
Although the usual flood of misinformation about coronavirus shots fills Iranian social media, only a small percentage of Iran's population has shunned the shot. The climbing vaccination rate has fueled a sense among citizens that they have overcome the worst of the crisis. Virus restrictions — and public compliance with health measures — have notably relaxed. Tehran's cafes, markets and metro stations are bustling with mask-less patrons.
Last week, Raisi increased spectator capacity at major sporting events and trade shows.
"I think the disease is over," declared Masoud Navabi, a mask-less 39-year-old delivery worker in downtown Tehran.
But authorities fear a nightmare wave of infection as Omicron spreads. Iran recorded its first three deaths from the variant this month. The central city of Ardalan was classified on Wednesday as the country's first high-infection "red zone" because of the variant.
The country faces its sternest test in the next months as it marks the anniversary of its 1979 Islamic Revolution and Nowrouz, the Persian New Year. The events typically involve celebrations and gatherings.
The country's modest success against the virus has now given way to uncertainty, officials say. A recent uptick in cases reveals how fragile its gains against the virus can be.
"All [medical] centers should be on alert," Deputy Health Minister Saeed Karimi warned. "This is an alarm bell."
