BAKU, Azerbaijan, Apr. 20
By Elnur Baghishov – Trend:
The Central Bank of Iran (CBI) has allocated a minimum of $100 million for the import of coronavirus vaccine today Apr. 20, Director General of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) Abdolnasser Hemmati wrote on his Instagram page, Trend reports.
According to Hemmati, these funds will be paid at the request of the Ministry of Health and Medical Education of Iran.
Hemmari added that funds related to the import of coronavirus vaccine are paid on the basis of any request of the ministry. So far, applications have been made for the import of vaccines from Russia and China, and the necessary funds have been paid.
The director-general said that 16.8 million doses of vaccine were allocated under the contract with the COVAX. The cost of the vaccine is $178 million. The CBI paid money for the first part of the vaccine and the vaccine began to be imported.
Iran continues to monitor the coronavirus situation in the country. According to recent reports from Iranian officials, over 2.28 million people have been infected, and 67,525 people have already died. Meanwhile, over 1.81 million people have reportedly recovered from the disease.
The country continues to apply strict measures to contain further spread. Reportedly, the disease was brought to Iran by a businessman from Iran's Qom city, who went on a business trip to China, despite official warnings. The man died later from the disease.
The Islamic Republic only announced its first infections and deaths from the coronavirus on Feb. 19.
The outbreak in the Chinese city of Wuhan - which is an international transport hub - began at a fish market in late December 2019.
The World Health Organization (WHO) on March 11 declared COVID-19 a pandemic. Some sources claim the coronavirus outbreak started as early as November 2019.
So far, a total of 621,000 people have been vaccinated in Iran. About 480,000 people were vaccinated in the first stage, and 141,000 people were vaccinated in the second stage.