Publish Date: 25 January 2021 - 09:23

Tehran, Jan 25, IRNA – Iran will receive first batch of foreign vaccines from COVAX, an affiliate to the World Health Organization, in the next few weeks, Secretary of national anti-COVID-19 Task Force Mostafa Ghaneie said on Monday.

Iran’s required coronavirus vaccine will be supplied from sources which have so far reported less side effects in human trial and is also more economical.

They will be first given to high-risk groups namely medical staff and the elderly people.

He also hailed the process of making Iranian COVID-19 vaccine on schedule.

Iranian vaccine named COV-Iran Barekat has started its human trial phase for a month and has so far been injected to 21 people, Ghaneie noted.   

He said that Razi Vaccine and Serum Research Institute is the second producer of vaccine in Iran whose vaccine will enter human trial phase in the next few days.

Pasteur Institute of Iran will also enter human trial phase in joint venture investment with Cuba.

Earlier, spokesman of Iran’s Food and Drug Administration Kianoush Jahanpour said Iran and Cuba are working together for capacity building to manufacture million doses of COVID-19 vaccine.

Iran has nine active coronavirus vaccine cases and Cuba has four volunteers for the vaccine, Jahanpour wrote in his Twitter account, adding that both sides have been under US sanctions for decades and sanctions were escalated over the past months. 

Cuba got prepared for clinical phase 3 of the vaccine with 150,000 participants.

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