Sept 16 (Reuters) – Iran’s new government has approved use of US firm Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine, a senior official said on Thursday, as the Islamic Republic fights a fifth wave of infections. President Ebrahim Raisi’s administration is under public pressure to broaden its sources of vaccines as infections mount in its deadliest wave yet. “The Johnson & Johnson single-dose corona vaccine has been approved,” the head of Iran’s Food and Drug Administration, Mohammad Reza Shanehsaz, was quoted as saying by Iranian media. In January, Khamenei banned the government from importing COVID-19 vaccines from United States and Britain, saying both countries were “untrustworthy”. __IMAGE: Iranians wait to receive a vaccine against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) as cases spike, in a vaccination center in Tehran, Iran August 9, 2021.
