Iran to Receive 1st Shipment of AstraZeneca Jabs Under COVAX

Iran is set to receive over 700,000 doses of AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccines on Wednesday, its first batch of vaccines under the global COVAX vaccine-sharing program designed to assist developing and middle-income countries procure sough-after Covid-19 vaccines.
“The shots, manufactured by South Korea’s SK-Bio, are being shipped to Tehran via Amsterdam,” Kianoush Jahanpour, the head of Health Ministry’s Public Relations Office, was quoted as saying by IRNA on Sunday night.
Wednesday’s delivery will take Iran’s coronavirus vaccines to over 1.5 million. The COVAX facility will deliver 16.8 million coronavirus shots to Iran over the next few months.
Backed by the World Health Organization and the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization, the initiative aims to distribute 2 billion vaccine shots by the end of 2021.
Iran has so far immunized 250,000 of its 80 million population against the infectious disease, falling short of its target to vaccinate 1.3 million by the end of March.
The inoculation drive is expected to pick up pace when the country’s homegrown vaccines reach mass production by the end of spring.
The capital of Tehran was placed on red alert on Monday, as an official with Tehran’s coronavirus taskforce, Nader Tavakkoli, announced 1,000 hospitalizations per day.
“Right now, 4,400 coronavirus patients have been admitted to Tehran’s hospitals. Some 5,700 visit Tehran’s hospitals on a daily basis and 1,000 of them are hospitalized,” he added.
Sima Sadat Lari, spokeswoman of Health Ministry, said nearly 14,000 patients were diagnosed with Covid-19 within one day, an 18% surge compared to a day earlier, taking the total number of cases to 1.945 million.
“Over the past 24 hours, 172 coronavirus patients lost their lives, bringing the national death toll to 63,332,” she added.
Worldwide, coronavirus cases rose to 132 million on Monday and the death toll reached 2.86 million.