BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 30
By Elnur Baghishov – Trend:
Iran has made great strides in development of a coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine, which will soon be tested on humans, said Iran's Minister of Health and Medical Education Saeed Namaki said, Trend reports citing the ministry.
He made the remark via videoconference at the opening ceremony of the Pharmex 2020 Medicine Exhibition.
According to Namaki, over the past four months, the activities of Iranian specialists in the production of vaccines have been closely monitored, and the results are very encouraging.
Namaki added that this vaccine has been successfully tested on animals.
The minister stressed that with the spread of the coronavirus in Iran, during the first 60 days, the country was importing coronavirus-related medical devices, however after that Iran turned from an importer into an exporter.
“Iran reduced the import of medicines and medicines by about 20 percent last Iranian year (from March 21, 2019 to March 20, 2020), thus saving about 600 million euros on imports," he said.
Iran continues to monitor the coronavirus situation in the country. According to recent reports from the Iranian officials, over 227,600 people have been infected 10,817 people have already died. Meanwhile, over 188,700 have reportedly recovered from the disease.
The country continues to apply strict measures to contain the further spread. Reportedly, the disease was brought to Iran by a businessman from Iran's Qom city, who went on a business trip to China, despite official warnings. The man died later from the disease.
The Islamic Republic only announced its first infections and deaths from the coronavirus on Feb. 19.
The outbreak in the Chinese city of Wuhan - which is an international transport hub - began at a fish market in late December 2019.
The World Health Organization (WHO) on March 11 declared COVID-19 a pandemic. Some sources claim the coronavirus outbreak started as early as November 2019.