DUBAI (UAE) – The Iranian government initiated an inoculation drive against COVID-19 on Tuesday. At first, the focus will be on hospital intensive care personnel in the country which is the hardest hit in the Middle East.
State television beamed footage of Health Minister Saeed Namaki’s son Parsa Namaki receiving the first dose of the vaccine. This was done to boost public confidence in the Sputnik V shot of Russia.
The nation has already received 10,000 of the 2 million doses of the Russian vaccine and has plans to administer the shots to some 1.3 million people by March 20. It will also receive more than 4 million doses of AstraZeneca’s vaccine.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has prohibited the health ministry from importing vaccines manufactured in the US and Britain, saying they were unreliable and could be used to spread the infection to other countries.
Tehran is also cooperating with the COVAX scheme, co-led by the World Health Organization. It aims to secure fair acccess to coronavirus shots for poorer nations.
So far, the country has marked 1.5 million COVID-19 cases and 58,536 mortalities and the number of deaths of Monday was 67, recording an eight-month low as per figures of the health ministry.
