TEHRAN – Iran will soon start human trial of a domestically-produced vaccine for the coronavirus, Health Minister Saeed Namaki said on Tuesday.

“Iran has taken very effective measures towards producing a vaccine for COVID-19 and will test the vaccine on humans in the near future,” IRNA quoted Namaki as saying.

“I have followed up on producing the vaccine by Iranian scientists closely over the past four months. The animal testing of the vaccine has been made successfully and the clinical trial phase of the human testing will start soon,” he explained.

Sourena Sattari, Vice President for Science and Technology, said in April that two types of diagnostic kits are now mass-produced by Iranian knowledge-based companies. The first one is the RT-PCR tests, 8 million of which are being produced per month while the other is serology-based tests that a total of 400,000 are being manufactured monthly and is expected to reach up to 2 million.

At present, 40 advanced ventilators are manufactured daily in the medical equipment sector, he explained.

Knowledge-based companies can produce any medicine effective in countering coronavirus or approved by the scientific committee within a week to 10 days, he noted.

Plasma therapy has so far reduced coronavirus deaths in Iran by 40 percent as experts in the country have discovered a life-saving method for those recovering from COVID-19.

Convalescent plasma therapy allows someone who has recovered from a coronavirus infection to donate their blood plasma to someone who is critically ill. 
In an attempt to slow down the spread of the coronavirus, the national headquarters for coronavirus fight has approved that wearing face masks in public and crowded places is compulsory.

People must wear face masks indoors or in gatherings, from July 5 to 21. And if necessary, the plan will be extended until August.

Using a face mask prevents coronavirus transmission up to 80 percent, Sadat Lari said.

Alireza Delavari, Tehran University of Medical Sciences vice-chancellor, said that “People's cooperation in preventing the transmission of coronavirus has decreased, and this will increase the incidence of disease and the number of hospitalizations and will cause problems for the treatment system.”

Referring to the increase in the prevalence of the virus, he noted that “Using a mask and observing social distancing are the most important factors in preventing corona, which is unfortunately not observed in large shopping centers, private companies, and even government offices, subways and buses.

Over the past 24 hours, 2,457 new cases of COVID-19 were identified in the country, of which 1,435 were hospitalized, Health Ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari said on Tuesday, adding that the total number of patients in the country reached 227,662.

Unfortunately, 147 patients lost their lives over the past 24 hours.

The total number of COVID-19 deaths in the country reached 10,817, she said.

MG