Call for Small-Scale Pilot Launch of Smart Restrictions

EghtesadOnline: President Ebrahim Raeisi on Thursday instructed his administration to launch a pilot program that restricts the access of unvaccinated people to public services in one province.

News ID: ۷۸۷۰۹۴

02 October 2021

Iran plans to make Covid-19 vaccination mandatory and limit the ways unvaccinated people can participate in public venues, President.ir reported.

Following the president’s directive, Deputy Interior Minister Hossein Zolfaqari announced that the scheme will be launched in the province of Qazvin, west of Tehran.

The plan, dubbed “smart lockdown”, can boost the economy by removing Covid restrictions for those immunized against the contagion.

So far, more than 39.4 million people have received a first dose and 16.4 million have been fully vaccinated, bringing the total number of shots administered to 55.8 million.

It has been nine months since Iran placed a nighttime curfew on movement to limit public gatherings and stem transmission rates.

In less than two weeks, some 70% of Iran’s population of 85 million people will be inoculated, paving the way for nationwide smart restrictions.

Tehran Vaccine Coverage

Head of Covid-19 Operations in the capital Tehran, Alireza Zali, said on Friday that 70% of the province’s population of 14.2 million have been given the first shot of a coronavirus vaccine.

He added, “Over 10.8 million citizens of Tehran have been inoculated. Over 2.9 million are fully vaccinated.”

The health official urged all Iranians to get a vaccine shot as fast as possible.

Iran’s vaccine rollout accelerated after Beijing started supplying the country with weekly shipments of its two-shot Sinopharm vaccine.

According to Health Minister Bahram Einollahi, Iran has imported more than 80 million shots and the national vaccination coverage rate has climbed to 62%.

The country’s daily cases and deaths are on the decline as the fifth wave of the disease subsides.

The Health Ministry on Friday registered 14,500 newly identified infections which took the case tally past 5.6 million.

It also logged 235 fatalities that brought the national toll to 120,663.

Worldwide coronavirus cases rose to 234.6 million on the same day as fatalities caused by the infectious disease reached 4.79 million.