TEHRAN, Oct. 19 (Xinhua) -- Iran has joined the COVAX initiative, which aims at working with vaccine manufacturers to provide world safe and effective vaccines, Iran's Ministry of Health and Medical Education announced on Monday.

The ministry has signed the letter for joining the COVAX initiative and has officially become a part of it, Heidar Mohammadi, director-general of Drugs and Controlled Substances of the ministry, was quoted as saying by official IRNA news agency.

Iran will have its share of the vaccine doses whenever the vaccine is produced, he said.

The Islamic republic announced its first cases of COVID-19 on Feb. 19, and as of Sunday it has registered 530,380 cases, of whom 30,375 have died.