“Since Tuesday and after the announcement of the vaccine trial registry, 27,079 volunteered and registered for the test,” Niki Maleki, the head of Information Center for Execution of Imam Khomeini's Order, was quoted as saying by ISNA.
EIKO is a charity organization with multi-sector business holdings. Human trials for the “first Iranian coronavirus vaccine” will begin next week in three phases.
The government has also ordered the purchase of millions of vaccine doses to immunize a segment of its population against Covid-19.
President Hassan Rouhani on Thursday said the elderly, those with preexisting health conditions and healthcare personnel will be the first to receive the imported Covid-19 shots.
“One of the government’s main priorities will be to extend full support for the domestic production of a vaccine. We’re hopeful the public can have access to a local vaccine that meets the required standards,” he said.
Health Ministry’s Spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari said Iran reported 6,000 new cases of coronavirus on Friday and admitted 900 to hospitals across the country.
“The freshly identified cases took the national tally to over 1.189 million,” she added.
Lari also announced that within 24 hours, 132 Covid-19 patients lost their lives and the total number of fatalities reached 54,440.
“More than 933,000 have recovered from the respiratory illness and 5,300 are hospitalized in intensive care units,” she said.
“Iran has carried out 7.3 million PCR tests since the start of the pandemic.”
The worldwide tally of coronavirus cases neared 80 million on Friday, as the death toll rose to 1.75 million.