Japan to Donate AstraZeneca Jabs to Iran

Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi said Tokyo is planning to donate a total of 11 million shots of AstraZeneca to 15 countries around the world, ISNA reported.

The much-needed Covid vaccines will be delivered to Iran, Cambodia, Laos, Kiribati and Fiji, among other countries, under the global vaccine sharing scheme COVAX. 

Tehran purchased 16.8 million AstraZeneca vaccines through COVAX over four months ago but the shipment deliveries have faced multiple delays to supply shortages. 

The international organization, backed by the United Nations, has so far made only two deliveries to Tehran, some 700,800 AstraZeneca doses manufactured by South Korea sent in early April and 1.452 million jabs produced by Italy were delivered one month later.

AstraZeneca says that its vaccine, developed with Oxford University, is 100% effective in preventing severe cases.

Over the past 24 hours, Iran administered 214,000 vaccine shots as part of its efforts to curb the fifth wave of the outbreak. 

Over 5.1 million Iranians have received the first dose of a Covid vaccine and 2.169 million are fully vaccinated.