Khamenei gets homemade jab

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, 81, yesterday received the first dose of a domestically produced coronavirus vaccine, his social media announced. State television said Khamenei had received a single dose of the COVIran Barekat jab, developed by a powerful state-owned foundation known as Setad. Strangled by US sanctions that have made it difficult to make money transfers to foreign firms, Tehran says it is struggling to import vaccines for its 83 million population. In early January, Khamenei banned imports of UK- and US-produced vaccines, saying they could "contaminate" the country.