“According to the permission we obtained from the Vaccine Safety Committee, we’re authorized to inject four more volunteers this week,” Hamed Hosseini, the head of the supervisory team for the vaccine manufactured by the Execution of Imam Khomeini’s Order (EIKO), was quoted as saying by ISNA.
Hosseini pointed out that the first three volunteers are in good health conditions. Last week, the first three participants received the shots of COV Iran Barakat.
“We’re expecting our study to conclude in two months. The process is slow in the beginning and we’ll later get approval to vaccinate more people,” Hosseini said.
Iran is hoping to start the mass production of its local vaccine by the end of spring. If the three phases of the trials for the experimental vaccine are successful, EIKO will be able to manufacture 10 million doses a month by the end of summer.
At least six knowledge-based companies in Iran are racing to develop vaccines against the novel coronavirus. So far, only one has been authorized to launch human trials.
Air Pollution and Corona Deaths
The Health Ministry announced that air pollution can increase the risk of deaths by Covid-19 by as much as 15%.
Abbas Shahsavani, the head of the Health Ministry’s air quality and climate change committee, said air pollution is linked to higher coronavirus transmission rates.
“It has been scientifically proven that the coronavirus can attach itself to air particles and enter the respiratory system. Air pollution and particulate matters increase the number of both infections and deaths,” he said.
Major cities across Iran have been experiencing an alarming level of air pollution in the past week, raising concerns over a rise in transmissions, and ultimately, deaths, caused by the pandemic.
Some 110 coronavirus patients lost their lives in one day, taking the death toll to 55,650, the spokeswoman of Health Ministry, Sima Sadat Lari, was quoted as saying by IRNA.
“Over 6,000 confirmed cases were identified in a 24-hour period and 769 were admitted to hospitals,” she added.
The new confirmed cases of infections brought the total tally to 1.249 million.
Iran has carried out 7.83 million PCR tests since it first spotted the novel coronavirus in the central city of Qom.
Lari noted that so far, 1.02 million have recovered from the disease and 4,900 are in critical condition.
The respiratory illness has infected over 85.57 million around the world and claimed the lives of 1.85 million.