Moscow, May 31 (Sputnik) Iran will begin to inoculate its population with the domestic coronavirus vaccine developed by the Barkat pharmaceutical company starting next week, Health and Medical Education Minister Saeed Namaki said on Monday.
The production of the COVIran Barakat vaccine was launched in early May. According to Iranian media, some 10 million doses are expected to be produced by mid-June.
“Starting next week, the vaccination of the population against the coronavirus will start with a domestic vaccine. Until the end of June, people over 60 years, as well as those with incurable and oncological diseases, will be inoculated,” Namaki said, as cited by the state-run ISNA news agency.
Iran launched its mass vaccination program back in February, using Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine. In total, the country is set to receive 16 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines through the international COVAX distribution initiative and import another 25 million doses from abroad, as well as produce 25 million doses domestically.
According to the latest data provided by the health ministry, as many as 2,913,136 cases were confirmed across the Middle Eastern country, including 80,156 fatalities and 2,458,684 recoveries.
