Travelers to Iran from Europe will be required to self-quarantine for two weeks after testing negative upon arrival, a health official said on Saturday.
Travelers from other regions, including neighboring countries, will have to have tested negative before arrival in the country, Alireza Raisi, spokesman for the national coronavirus task force, said on state TV.
Raisi said travelers arriving from Europe should be holding negative test results, will be tested again and will have to self-quarantine even if their test is negative, state media reported.
Previously, people coming from Europe were only required to test negative.
He did not say when exactly the new measures will go into effect, saying only "from now on."
Meanwhile, health officials said the Iranian-manufactured Barekat vaccine was found effective against the highly contagious coronavirus variant that emerged in Britain.
“Tests conducted on the blood plasma of three volunteers of 'COVIran Barekat' vaccine completely neutralized the mutated coronavirus,” Hassan Jalili, who is in charge of the team that produces the local vaccine, told state TV.
Iran launched human trials of its first domestic vaccine candidate late last month, saying this could help it defeat the pandemic despite US sanctions that affect its ability to import vaccines.
It has also approved Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine and plans to both import it and produce it.
Iran's ambassador to Russia said Saturday that Tehran expects to receive the first batch of the vaccine by February 4, state news agency IRNA reported.
"A contract for the purchase and joint production was signed yesterday between Iran and Russia," envoy Kazem Jalali said, quoted by IRNA.
Two more batches are to be delivered by February 18 and 28, he added, without specifying quantities.
Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei earlier this month banned the use of vaccines made by the United States and Britain, calling them "completely untrustworthy".
Iran is fighting the region’s deadliest outbreak of Covid-19 with more than 57,800 dead out of over 1.4 million cases.
The country says arch enemy US has blocked its access to vaccines through Washington's tough sanctions regime.
While food and medicine are technically exempt, international banks tend to refuse transactions involving Iran.
Russia registered the jab -- named after the Soviet-era satellite -- in August last year, before the start of large-scale clinical trials, leaving some experts wary.
Sputnik V's developers have since said the vaccine is more than 90 percent effective and several countries outside of Russia have begun administering it, including Argentina.
Hungary has also said it has reached a deal to buy the vaccine, although it has not been approved by the European Union.
