Iran will launch its COVID-19 vaccination campaign in the near future and the use of foreign-made vaccines will be necessary, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani announced on Saturday.
According to Rouhani, the use of foreign vaccines is a necessity until locally-made ones become available. No further information about what vaccines may be used during the inoculation campaign was provided.
Earlier in January, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei declared a ban on imports of COVID-19 vaccines from the United Kingdom and the United States.
Meanwhile, Iranian officials have confirmed that Tehran held negotiations on the potential procurement of vaccines with Moscow, Beijing, and New Delhi.
Iran began the human trials of its first domestic coronavirus vaccine in late December and said that no side effects were detected so far.
To date, Iran has confirmed over 1.3 million COVID-19 cases, including more than 57,000 related deaths and over 1.1 million recoveries.