Iran to Vaccinate 13 Million High-Risk People by Late July

EghtesadOnline: Iran aims to vaccinate its 13 million high-risk population by late July to reduce the coronavirus pandemic’s death rate, President Hassan Rouhani announced.

News ID: ۷۸۶۴۳۰

10 May 2021

“As per the Health Ministry’s plan, 13 million people will be immunized against Covid-19 by July 22,” the president was quoted as saying by his website.

So far, 1.378 million have received the first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine and 276,000 have been fully vaccinated. Iran has administered a total of 1.655 million shots.

Spokesman of National Coronavirus Headquarters Alireza Raeisi announced that school teachers and university instructors will be inoculated against the deadly virus over summer, in time for the reopening of schools and universities in autumn.

Iran switched to distance learning following the spread of the coronavirus across the country and all educational institutions have been closed for over a year to curb the outbreak.

Local Vaccine Rollout

Rouhani on Sunday said Pasteur Institute of Iran’s jointly produced vaccine with Cuba will be ready for inoculation in the next two weeks.

“CoV Pasteur is set for public use by late May and COV-Iran Barekat will become available by late June,” he added.

According to the head of the team behind COV Barekat, Iran will have the capacity to produce 20 million shots of the vaccine every month, exponentially speeding up the national vaccination program.

The Health Ministry logged 386 coronavirus deaths on Sunday, taking the national toll to 74,910. The ministry’s spokeswoman, Sima Sadat Lari, announced a 14% drop in fatalities compared to a week earlier.

The ministry also registered 14,100 daily cases of the infection, 2,000 of whom required hospitalization, taking the total number of cases to 2.654 million.

Lari said, “There is a 16.5% decline in hospitalization and a 26% decrease in Covid-19 cases, compared to the week before.”

Rouhani stated on Saturday that the country is passing the peak of the fourth wave of the outbreak and most provinces are reporting a downtrend in infections.

Iran was forced to close down most non-essential businesses for one month in cities color-coded red and orange to stem the disease. The country is not planning to remove the nighttime curfew before more people are vaccinated against the contagion.

Worldwide coronavirus cases increased to 158.3 million on Sunday and fatalities caused by the viral infection reached 3.29 million.