The Iranian government has allocated $40 million for the purchase of vaccines needed to tackle the coronavirus pandemic amid efforts to secure the supply of the jabs both from abroad and through domestic companies.

A spokeswoman of Iran’s Plan and Budget Organization (PBO) said on Monday that a draft budget bill presented to the Iranian parliament for the next calendar year beginning March 21 earmarks 10 trillion rials for the purchase of vaccines to immunize people against COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.

Mojgan Khanlu said the fund would account for more than a fourth of the government’s budget for the supply of vaccines and medication in the next calendar year.

Iranian authorities had indicated last month that the country would rely on the supply of COVID-19 vaccines from abroad while efforts would continue to support domestic initiatives to develop a safe and effective jab.

However, government authorities said earlier on Monday that US sanctions had made it almost impossible for Iran to secure abundant doses of the vaccines.

Central Bank of Iran governor Abdolnasser Hemmati said in a post on his Instagram page that the United States Office of Foreign Assets Control had refused to grant waivers from sanctions to banks seeking to process Iranian funds for the purchase of COVID-19 vaccines.

Iran has relied on home-grown efforts to tackle one of the hardest outbreaks of the virus in the Middle East region.

The draft budget presented to the Iranian parliament for the next calendar year would allow the health ministry to further boost the country’s defenses against the coronavirus by recruiting tens of thousands of nurses and doctors and supplying abundant protective and medical equipment to hospitals and care homes.

PBO’s Khanlu said that the budget of the Iranian health ministry would more than double next year to reach 770 trillion rials (over $3 billion)