BAKU, Azerbaijan, Feb. 6
By Elnur Baghishov – Trend:
The vaccination against the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in Iran will begin this week in accordance with the priorities set by the Ministry of Health and Medical Education, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said in a meeting of the Committee to Combat Coronavirus, Trend reports citing the Iranian President Office’s official website.
The president noted that the first batch of vaccines has already been delivered to the country. The vaccination of medical workers in the first stage is an important issue. The elderly and people with chronic diseases will be vaccinated at the next stage. The vaccination of these people is expected to be completed in about 2 months.
“The population of Iran is about 84 million. The production of the vaccine is a priority for Iran. Iran must produce enough coronavirus vaccines. If all the processes go as planned, it is possible to vaccinate all people in Iran for 5-6 months,” he added.
Rouhani said that it is expected that Iran will begin mass production of its own vaccines and a joint vaccine with Cuba as of the beginning of next Iranian year (March 21, 2021).
As reported, Iran has ordered 2 million doses of the "Sputnik V" vaccine from Russia. A batch of 500,000 doses of the vaccine was delivered to Iran over the past day.
Iran continues to monitor the coronavirus situation in the country. According to recent reports from Iranian officials, over 1.45 million people have been infected, and 58,412 people have already died. Meanwhile, over 1.24 million people have reportedly recovered from the disease.
The country continues to apply strict measures to contain 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.