Plan to Start Vaccinating Students in 2 Weeks

EghtesadOnline: The Health Ministry announced its latest scheme to contain the Covid-19 outbreak and reopen schools by giving out vaccines to school children between the ages of 7 and 18 starting two weeks from now.

News ID: ۷۸۷۰۳۱

18 September 2021

Health Minister Bahram Einollahi said on Thursday that children’s inoculation is scheduled to begin in two weeks to pave the way for large-scale school reopenings.

“Schools will open again when pupils have received both shots,” he said, pointing out that less populated schools located in rural areas or low-risk zones could resume activities sooner.

Iran has ramped up vaccine rollout to stem the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant by importing large shipments of the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine.

According to Einollahi, Iran now holds the weekly vaccination record throughout the world after it administered 7.9 million doses in the past week.

The previous record belonged to Germany with six million weekly vaccinations.

Iran will be able to maintain the current vaccination rates in the coming week as five million more jabs arrived into the country on the weekend.

Head of the Iranian Red Crescent Society Karim Hemmati said that a 20th shipment containing five million jabs was imported and delivered to the Health Ministry for distribution on Thursday.

“We’re only five million jabs away from our target to bring in 20 million shots in [one month],” he said.

So far, 27.8 million Iranians have received a first dose and more than 13.4 people have been fully vaccinated, bringing the total number of shots administered to over 41.2 million.