COVID-19 vaccinations in Iran to start from Tuesday: President Rouhani

President Hassan Rouhani says vaccinations against the coronavirus pandemic are set to kick off across the country on Tuesday.

According to Press TV, Rouhani made the announcement on Monday, saying that nationwide vaccinations are scheduled to start on February 9 and will continue quickly within the framework of the document approved by the National Headquarters for Managing and Fighting the Coronavirus in the capital Tehran.

“We hope that next year will be a better year for the people in the fight against this virus, and that the people will have better conditions in terms of sanctions, which, of course, have failed,” the Iranian president stated.

Rouhani had earlier expressed hope that vaccinations against COVID-19 would start before the end of the current Persian calendar year in March.

Iran has purchased 16.8 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines from COVAX, a multi-agency group dedicated to assuring fair access to vaccines for low- and middle-income countries.

The country has also bought the Sputnik V vaccine from Russia and plans its joint production. The first batch of the Russian vaccine arrived in Iran last week.

Sputnik-V has proven efficient in curing the potentially fatal respiratory disease in 91.6 percent of the cases.

The Islamic Republic is further examining sourcing vaccines from other producers such as India and China.

At the same time, the country has developed domestic vaccines against the coronavirus, one of which launched its human trial last December after successfully completing the initial steps and obtaining necessary approvals.

Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has disallowed imports of Western vaccines over side effect concerns.

So far, over 1,473,750 Iranians have been infected with COVID-19 in the country. The virus has killed more than 58,530 people, while 1,260,045 have recovered.

SS