Tehran:
Iran started its vaccination campaign against Covid-19 on Tuesday to fight the Middle East’s deadliest outbreak of the illness, photos broadcast by state tv showed.
“We begin our national vaccination against the Covid-19 virus… (in) memory of the martyrdom of health workers,” Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani stated at a ceremony at a Tehran hospital, referring to health-related personnel who have died from the illness.
Iran’s inoculation work for its 80-million-plus population is beginning with Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine, authorities have stated.
The 1st doses of the Russian vaccine arrived on Thursday in Tehran, with two more shipments anticipated by February 18 and 28, according to Iranian authorities.
The Islamic republic has purchased two million doses of Sputnik V, overall health ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour told AFP on Saturday.
Health Minister Saeed Namaki stated final week that Iran would also acquire 4.2 million doses of the vaccine created by Anglo-Swedish firm AstraZeneca and Oxford University, bought by means of the international vaccine mechanism Covax.
The novel coronavirus has infected 1.4 million people today in Iran and killed more than 58,500, according to the overall health ministry.
The nation began clinical trials of its personal 1st locally created vaccine in late December and on Monday unveiled a second homegrown vaccine project.
The second Iranian vaccine, dubbed Razi Cov Pars, was created at the Razi Vaccine and Serum Research Institute, which is linked to the agriculture ministry, according to Massoud Soleimani, a member of Iran’s national vaccine committee.
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