TEHRAN – A plan has been prepared to vaccinate the whole population against coronavirus over the next 48 days, Alireza Raisi, a spokesman for the National Headquarters for Coronavirus control, has said.

Mass vaccination has been accelerated, as over 1 million doses are being injected daily, which can be achieved only by few countries, he further stated.

More homegrown vaccines, such as Fakhra, Noora, Spikogen, and Pastu Covac, have received emergency use licenses, and will be on the market within a month, he explained.

Currently, more than 5.2 million doses of domestic COVIRAN vaccine have been injected, and the possible side effects of this vaccine are really low compared to the foreign vaccines such as Pfizer, Moderna, etc., Raisi highlighted.

COVID-19 toll declining

The coronavirus mortality related to delta variant peaked in July and recorded over 700 daily deaths, but with the increase of vaccination pace, the toll is now decreasing.

Today, more than one million doses of vaccine are injected daily in the country, and many age groups of the elderly, rare diseases patients, teachers, university professors, health professionals, veterans, etc. have been vaccinated against the disease and now the process of vaccinating students is underway.

Studies show that people who are not vaccinated are 4.5 times more likely to develop COVID-19 than those who are fully vaccinated, and 10 and 11 times more likely to be hospitalized and die, respectively.

According to these studies, vaccines are effective against Delta strain and prevent hospitalization and death.

Previously, Raisi had said in this regard "Currently, the fifth wave is declining, the peak has completely dropped in 21 provinces, eight provinces have just crossed the peak and in three provinces the increasing trend has stopped.”

Therefore, it is forecasted that by the next two weeks, the number of hospital admissions will be lower than 3,000 per day, he added.

Mass vaccination accelerated

“We plan to double the number of vaccination centers, which is about 1,008 by now,” Raisi stated, adding, in addition, we plan to operate most centers in two work shifts to increase the speed of vaccination and to surpass 1.5 million injections per day.

He went on to in total, about 20 million doses of vaccine will be imported by the end of September, adding, about 30 million doses also will be delivered to the country since October.

Mass vaccination against COVID-19 started on Iranian citizens with the Russian-made Sputnik V vaccine on February 9.

While Iran continues efforts to mass-produce local candidates, over 40 million doses of foreign vaccines have already been imported and others are expected soon.

Iran is also producing vaccines jointly with three countries of Russia, Cuba, and Australia.

FB/MG