Russia’s Sputnik Vaccine to Arrive in Iran This Week

The first shipment of Russia’s Covid-19 vaccine Sputnik V is due to arrive in Tehran by Feb. 4, Iran’s envoy to Moscow announced on Saturday.
Kazem Jalali added that Russia has agreed to deliver three shipments of its vaccine to Iran over the next month, IRNA reported.
The announcement came one day after Iran and Russia signed an agreement for the purchase and joint production of Sputnik V to stem the spread of the Covid-19 outbreak.
“Due to Iran’s large vaccine production capacity, we have agreed that the vaccine be also manufactured in Iran,” Jalali said, adding that Iran could serve as a regional hub for Sputnik V exports.
“Over 14 nations have approved Russia’s coronavirus vaccine and no side effects have been reported by the three million who have already received the injection,” Kianoush Jahanpour, spokesman of Iran Food and Drug Administration, said.
At least three local pharmaceutical companies are racing to develop and test their coronavirus vaccine. Iran is also importing vaccines from China and via COVAX, a global initiative aimed at securing fair access to Covid-19 vaccines.
Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf on Saturday asked his Chinese counterpart, Li Zhanshu, to accelerate the delivery of their vaccine to Tehran.
Within 24 hours, 6,300 tested positive for Covid-19, taking the total tally past 1.41 million, Sima Sadat Lari, spokeswoman of Health Ministry, said on Saturday.
The health official said 82 patients lost their lives and the death toll increased to 57,889 in the last 24 hours.
According to Lari, more than 1.2 million patients have recovered from the infectious disease and 3,960 are in critical condition.
“Iran has administered over 9.23 million diagnostic tests since the start of the pandemic,” she said.
The number of worldwide confirmed coronavirus cases rose to 102.7 million and fatalities reached 2.21 million.