TEHRAN – Iran will start testing its homegrown coronavirus vaccine on humans in early November, Health Minister Saeed Namaki said on Tuesday.

Pointing to the numerous researches done on COVID-19 vaccines at the international level, he said that some 5 groups are working on vaccine production, two of which achieved better results.

If the disease and the vaccine do not undergo fundamental changes and transformations, we have developed good methods for making the vaccine and informed the World Health Organization about this, he stated, IRNA reported.

With this trend, we hope to have good news for the Iranian people about the vaccine in the near future, he highlighted.

Referring to the high prevalence of COVID-19 in the community, Namaki said that there are no shortcomings in the Ministry of Health and no patient has faced a lack of hospital facilities.

He stressed that “what has caused the disease viral is non-compliance with health protocols and the lack of strict action against violators of health instructions.”

If early diagnosis and 14-day quarantine are done properly, we will see good results in disease control in the future, he concluded.

The Iranian health minister announced on Sunday that he had “good news” about a COVID-19 vaccine being developed in the country.

COVID-19 death toll hits 31,000 in Iran

In the press briefing on Tuesday, Health Ministry spokesperson Sima-Sadat Lari confirmed 5,039 new cases of COVID-19 infection, raising the total number of infections to 539,670. She added that 434,676 patients have so far recovered, but 4,810 still remain in critical conditions of the disease.

In the past 24 hours, 322 patients have lost their lives, bringing the total number of deaths to 31,034, she added.

Lari noted that so far 4,570,243 COVID-19 tests have been conducted across the country.

She said the high-risk “red” zones include provinces of Tehran, Isfahan, Qom, East Azarbaijan, South Khorasan, Semnan, Qazvin, Lorestan, Ardebil, Khuzestan, Kermanshah, Kohgiluyeh-Boyerahmad, Gilan, Bushehr, Zanjan, Ilam, Khorasan Razavi, Mazandaran, Chaharmahal-Bakhtiari, Alborz, West Azarbaijan, Markazi, Kerman, North Khorasan, Hamedan, Yazd, and Kordestan.

The provinces of Hormozgan, Fars, and Golestan are also on alert.

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