Iran Gets Chinese Vaccine for Coronavirus
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The first consignment of COVID-19 vaccines made by China's Sinopharm arrived in Iran, whose vaccination rollout has already begun with Russian-made Sputnik V vaccine.
A Mahan Air flight carried a cargo of 250,000 doses of Sinopharm vaccine to Tehran in the early hours of Sunday.
Sinopharm, a Chinese state-owned company, is developing two COVID-19 vaccines. It announced in December 2020 that phase three trials of the vaccine showed It was 79% effective. The United Arab Emirates, which approved a Sinopharm vaccine earlier this month, said the vaccine was 86% effective.
Iran has already imported shipments of Sputnik V from Russia to vaccinate the priority groups, including the nurses and the elderly in the nursing homes.
Health Minister Saeed Namaki said on Friday that Iran is going to import the AstraZeneca vaccine for the coronavirus from South Korea.
Officials say Iran will receive around 16 million doses of vaccines through the World Health Organization's COVAX program, import more than 25 million doses from abroad, and produce 25 million other doses inside the country.
Earlier in February, the chairman of the Headquarters for Executing the Order of Imam Khomeini, the institution that has developed the first Iranian vaccine for COVID-19, said the homegrown vaccine is one hundred percent effective against the mutated variant of coronavirus found in the UK.
The Razi Vaccine and Serum Research Institute unveiled the second Iranian vaccine for the coronavirus, administered via injection or inhalation, on February 7.
Cov-Pars is a vaccine based on recombinant protein that can be injected or inhaled.