BAKU, Azerbaijan, Feb. 9
By Elnur Baghishov – Trend:
The vaccination of Russian-made "Sputnik V" vaccine against coronavirus (COVID-19) was launched in Iran today on February 9, with the injecting to Parsa Namaki, the son of the Iranian Minister of Health and Medical Education, Trend reports.
According to the report, the vaccination was broadcast live and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani attended the event in an online format.
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 on Feb. 5.
The vaccine will be given to medical workers, the elderly, and people with chronic diseases in the first stage. The vaccination of these people is expected to be completed in about 2 months.
Iran continues to monitor the coronavirus situation in the country. According to recent reports from Iranian officials, over 1.47 million people have been infected, and 58,536 people have already died. Meanwhile, over 1.26 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.