Iranian Health Minister Saeed Namaki said on Wednesday, August 18, that US sanctions on the country’s banking sector were preventing it from importing drugs and medical equipment.
He was quoted by the country’s semiofficial FARS news agency as saying that these were needed to fight the current wave of Covid-19 in the country.
Iran is currently experiencing its worst wave of new Covid-19 infections and resulting deaths in what is the third wave of the pandemic in the country.
According to official figures, the seven-day average of new cases in the country was almost 40,000 on Tuesday.
Till date, Iran has seen more than 4.5 million cases of Covid-19 infections since the beginning of the pandemic, with more than 99,000 deaths so far.
It is under these circumstances that Saeed Namaki said: “Despite the US regime officials’ lies (that embargos do not affect the medical sector), the sanctions have created a big hurdle to the supply of medicine and medical equipment in Iran.”
President Seyed Ebrahim Raisi said last Saturday the country would import 30 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine, stressing the necessity for providing millions more jabs.
He added: “Experts believe that 60 million more doses of vaccine should be provided to control the improper situation of coronavirus outbreak in the country.”