Poland is donating a million AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines to several countries, including Iran, Egypt, Vietnam, Taiwan, Kenya, Ukraine, Australia and Norway, according to Reuters which cited a Thursday announcement of the Polish embassy in Tehran.
According to PAP, on Saturday, Poland recorded 3,236 new confirmed cases of coronavirus, compared with 2,771 cases on Friday, with 44 deaths. And 123,871 Poles in quarantine.
Out of Poland’s population of some 38 million, 19.6 million have been fully vaccinated as of last Wednesday. Noting a slowdown in the rate of vaccinations, the Polish government decided to avoid being stuck with out-of-date vaccines and to send the excess stock to countries that could use them.
Reuters cited Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Pawel Jablonski who said his country did not charge Iran for the vaccines in consideration of its economic hardship, and clarified: “We are doing this to support the Iranian people. It is not a sign of any change in our international policy vis-a-vis Iran.”
However, in a few other cases Poland did charge the recipient countries for the cost of the vaccines, Jablonski said, noting that at least 30 countries had asked Poland for its spare vaccine supplies.
According to Iran’s Health Ministry, on Saturday there were 7,515 new cases of COVID-19 infections, 1,197 of which required hospitalization. The ministry also said that a total of 48,015,159 Iranians have so far received the first dose of the coronavirus vaccine, with more than 23.34 million having received the second dose.