Iran’s new government has approved a COVID-19 vaccine developed by US firm Johnson & Johnson, a senior official said on Thursday, as the Islamic republic faces a fifth wave of infections.
The announcement came eight months after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei banned imports of vaccines made by the United States and Britain – although Iran has accepted vaccines developed by Western firms, but manufactured elsewhere.
President Ibrahim Raisi’s administration is under public pressure to broaden its sources of vaccines as infections have seen the deadliest wave.
“The Johnson & Johnson single-dose corona vaccine has been approved,” Mohammad Reza Shanehsaz, the head of Iran’s Food and Drug Administration, was quoted as saying by Iranian media.
He did not specify where the vaccine would be produced or refer to the ban.
In January, Khamenei banned the government from importing COVID-19 vaccines from the United States and Britain, saying the two countries were “unreliable”. He later said the ban was on vaccines made in those countries.
On Thursday, Schenhsaz said Russia’s single-component Sputnik Light vaccine had also been approved.
“Fortunately, the basket of corona vaccines registered in Iran has become very diverse and large,” he said.
Iran is trying to accelerate vaccination by using imported doses – including Sputnik V, India’s Covaxin made by Bharat Biotech, and the British-developed Oxford/Oxford, manufactured by Russia’s R-Pharm Group and AstraZeneca-SKBO in South Korea. Contains AstraZeneca Shots. Iran also uses its own COVIran Barakat shot.
The health ministry says 13 million out of a population of 83 million have been fully vaccinated.
The ministry on Thursday reported 18,021 new infections in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of cases to 5,378,408 in Iran, the worst-hit country in the Middle East. Deaths rose by 6,981 to 116,072.
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