Smart Restrictions to Replace Lockdowns

EghtesadOnline: Iran intends to restrict unvaccinated people’s access to public services in coming weeks and at the same time relax most lockdown measures throughout the country.

News ID: ۷۸۷۰۸۲

29 September 2021

“Smart quarantine will take the place of normal lockdowns, it means vaccinated people can enjoy the benefits of getting inoculated,” Health Minister Bahram Einollahi was quoted as saying by IRNA on Tuesday.

Citizens will be obligated to present a QR code that shows they have been vaccinated before they can board planes or check into hotel rooms, according to the new scheme.

Einollahi explained, “Anyone who gets vaccinated can receive a QR code via the Health Ministry’s application and can present it to do many things.”

A growing number of nations are barring unvaccinated people from accessing public services to encourage the public to get the shot.

Details of the Health Ministry’s initiative are yet to be released.

More than 36.9 million Iranians have had a first vaccination dose and some 15.8 million people have been fully vaccinated. The Health Ministry has so far administered a total of 52.7 million shots.

Results of a poll published by the Iranian Students Polling Agency (ISPA) showed that roughly 14% of those over the age of 18 are not interested in getting vaccinated.

Einollahi noted that the new measures can prevent a sixth wave of the outbreak.

Lockdown restrictions are set to ease in two to three weeks when almost 70% of Iranians have been immunized against the infectious disease.

Vaccination Target

Einollahi said that Iran will in two weeks celebrate the “victory” of mass vaccinations after it reaches 70% vaccine coverage.

More than 53 million shots have been administered and the figure will rise to 60 million in two weeks, he added.

According to Einollahi, Iran gave out 8.2 million coronavirus vaccine doses over the past week to raise vaccination rates as fast as possible.

Vaccine rollout has picked up speed over the past month after China began to regularly supply Iran with large shipments of its Sinopharm vaccine.

In less than ten days, medical universities will reopen throughout the country after more than two semesters of closure and online learning.

Rest of the universities are to follow suit by late October.

Iran is vaccinating university and school students to return to normal conditions before the end of the semester.

The Health Ministry on Tuesday lowered vaccine eligibility age to 12 to pave the way for more school reopenings as another batch of Sinopharm vaccines arrived in Tehran.

The two million jabs took the number of doses imported to 71 million.

Health officials have said that 140 million doses are required to curb transmission rates among Iran’s population of 85 million people

Some 239 more patients died from the Covid-19 outbreak on Tuesday and 11,700 became infected with the virus.

Worldwide Covid-19 cases rose to 233.1 million on the same day and mortalities from the contagion reached 4.77 million.