TEHRAN, Iran, Aug. 25
Trend:
Representative of the World Health Organization in Iran Jafar Hossein said that Iran is the only country that has fully paid for the vaccines purchased through COVAX mechanism, equal to 16.8 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines, Trend reports citing IRNA.
"Unfortunately, due to the lack of resources to produce enough vaccines, the delivery of purchased shipments was slightly delayed," Hossein said during his visit to a vaccination center in Tehran.
“About 5.8 million doses of coronavirus vaccine have been imported to Iran so far through COVAX,” he said, expressing hope that the import vaccines from other countries will be facilitated soon.
“Covax will soon send a new shipment to Iran,” Hossein said.
Iran continues to monitor the coronavirus situation in the country. 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 of Iran only announced its first infections and deaths from the coronavirus on Feb. 19. The pandemic hit a wide range of businesses in Iran since its outbreak in mid-February.
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.