Iran to receive Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine despite ban

Health Minister Saeed Namaki confirms country will receive 4.2 million doses

Iran will receive the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine despite a ban on US and British-made shots. EPA

Iran will receive deliveries of the AstraZeneca-Oxford University vaccine despite a ban on British and US-made shots.

The UK embassy in Tehran confirmed that the country would receive 4.2 million doses of the vaccine under the World Health Organisation’s Covax initiative.

The embassy said London had provided £548 million towards the initiative.

The embassy’s remarks came after Iranian Health Minister Saeed Namaki failed to acknowledge the vaccine’s ties to the UK.

The vaccine was designed by scientists at Oxford University and is manufactured by British-Swedish company AstraZeneca.

Iran’s top authority, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had banned the health ministry from importing US and British-made vaccines, which he said were unreliable and may be used to spread the infection to other nations.

The first doses of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine began arriving in Iran on Thursday.

The Covax initiative aims to secure fair access to vaccines for poorer countries.

Authorities have yet to announce when vaccinations will start formally in the Middle East’s most affected country, which has recorded about 1.5 million cases and 58,256 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.

“We hope to start the vaccination as soon as we get the Covid-19 vaccines,” Mr Namaki said.

Early data released this week suggests that the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine could reduce the spread of coronavirus by up to two thirds while also preventing serious illness.

Another Oxford study released on Friday showed that the vaccine was just as effective against the UK variant of the virus as well as the original strain.

Protection against symptomatic infection was similar for the new variant as well as the earlier strain, according to the study, which analysed swabs taken from volunteers from October to mid-January.

Meanwhile, British medical regulator said reports on vaccine side effects showed that the Oxford vaccine as well as the Pfizer-BioNTech drug were extremely safe.

Of the seven million doses delivered up until January 24, there were 22,840 reported reactions – three in every 1,000 people were adversely affected by the drug.

Almost all cases were mild, such as a sore arm or flu-like illness, the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency said.