The GHS Index is the first comprehensive assessment and benchmarking of health security and related capabilities across the 195 countries across six categories and 37 indicators.

The Index is a project of the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) and the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security and was developed with Economist Impact, which aims to spur measurable changes in national health security and improve the international capability to address one of the world’s most omnipresent risks: infectious disease outbreaks that can lead to international epidemics and pandemic

Although many countries were able to quickly develop capacities to address COVID-19, all countries remain dangerously unprepared for meeting future epidemic and pandemic threats, potentially more devastating than COVID-19.

The results of the 2021 Index show that even as many countries proved they could ramp up new capacities during the emergency—including setting up labs and creating cohorts of contact tracers to follow the spread of COVID-19—some responses were crippled by long-unaddressed weaknesses, such as lack of healthcare surge capacity and critical medical supplies.

Iran ranks 90th out of 195 countries with a score of 36.5 out of 100.

In this report, there are data and research-based on 6 categories of prevention, diagnosis, and reporting rapid response, health systems, commitments to improve financial capacity and global norms, and high-risk and risky environment.

In the “Prevention” index, Iran ranks 46th with a score of 28.4 out of 100 on the global average.

In the “Health Systems” index, the country gained a score of 39.4 and is ranked 70th among countries in the world with a score of 31.5.

In the “Commitments to Improve Financial Capacity and Global Norms” index, Iran is ranked 185 with a global average score of 47.8 and an overall score of 27.1.

In general, the first country in this index is the United States and the last is Somalia.

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Mohammad-Mehdi Esmaeili made the remarks in a meeting with former culture minister Seyyed Abbas Salehi on Thursday just one day after winning a vote of confidence from the Iranian Parliament, the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance announced in a press release.

“Due to the pandemic, artists and people working in cultural fields have been facing hard days over the pandemic and this popular government is seeking to pass the current condition to support them,” he said.

He added that the culture ministry will pursue the endeavors made by the former minister to vaccinate artists and cultural figures so that to help the cultural and art center resume their regular activities.

“We will try to make use Mr. Salahi’s vast cultural and scientific experience as the president has emphasized the need to interact with former managers so that to do our best in our mission,” he added.

Salahi also wished Esmaeili good luck in his mission and said, “I will serve as a soldier wherever there will be a need for my help.”

“In each new management, new activities and works will absolutely form, however, communication with the past can help new managers head toward the future with more knowledge,” he added.

Esmaeili has not been welcomed by artists and cineastes as he accused them of disregarding the values of the Islamic Revolution in his programs discussed at the Iranian Parliament.

He has also has challenged the legality of the Iranian House of Cinema, which is the official guild of Iranian cineastes.

Esmaeili is scheduled officially inaugurated as the new culture ministry this week.

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“To this end, we have put in a request to the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement to increase the budget necessary for vaccinating these vulnerable groups,” ILNA quoted Daniel Munoz-Rojas, the deputy representative of the ICRC in Tehran, as saying on Tuesday.

Iran is hosting a large number of Afghan refugees. So, we, as the International Committee of the Red Cross, support the Iranian Red Crescent Society for offering services to the refugees,” he added.

However, it should be noted that vaccines are provided by governments and the International Committee of the Red Cross is not in charge of buying and importing the vaccines, he explained.

On Sunday, IRCS head Karim Hemmati said he has asked the ICRC to provide 2 million doses of coronavirus vaccine to be used for Afghan refugees.

The population of Afghan immigrants residing in Iran is about two to three million, some of whom sometimes have problems with identity cards or do not have identification codes, Hemmati added.

“If these people are among our priority groups, they will be vaccinated. For example, if an Afghan national is part of the medical staff in Iran, they will be vaccinated,” he noted.

At the end of 2018, Iran hosted close to one million refugees, making it the sixth-largest refugee host country in the world. The country was also the eighth largest refugee-hosting country in the world in 2019, hosting 951,142 Afghan refugees and 28,268 Iraqi refugees, according to the UNHCR.

One of the largest and most protracted urban refugee populations in the world is living in Iran; about 97 percent of refugees live in urban and semi-urban areas, while three percent are residing in 20 refugee resorts run by the UNHCR’s main government counterpart.

In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, undocumented Afghans have access to free primary health services and similarly free COVID-19 related testing, treatment, and hospitalization, just like nationals.

Some 120,000 refugees residing in Iran are now covered by health insurance, According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

Despite the challenges, Iran has continued to generously give refugees access to education and health services. Iran is one of the handfuls of countries in the world that offer refugees the option to enroll in national health insurance for essential secondary and tertiary public health services in the same way as Iranian nationals.

The national insurance scheme allows for free COVID-19 treatment and hospitalization. It also subsidizes the cost of surgeries, dialysis, radiology, laboratory tests, outpatient care, and more.

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In a Twitter message on Sunday, Zarif called for “a global vaccination response” to confront the pandemic, which has killed more than 3 million people across the world.

But global vaccination efforts, he emphasized, have been restricted “whether due to sanctions & #MedicalTerrorism against Iranians, or out of malice toward Palestinians.”

The US “has a vaccine surplus,” Zarif pointed out.

The top Iranian diplomat has repeatedly denounced the illegal and unilateral US sanctions that have blocked the country’s access to crucial medical supplies during the pandemic.

Iran is battling the highly contagious virus under illegal sanctions which the United States re-imposed against the country after withdrawing from a UN-backed nuclear deal between Tehran and major world powers three years ago.

Washington, under former president Donald Trump, then unleashed a so-called maximum pressure campaign against the Islamic Republic, characterized by sweeping economic sanctions that also hit Iran’s health sector.

The sanctions have intensified the adverse effects of the pandemic and hindered the government’s pathways to contain the deadly virus.

Iran has seen an uptick in the number of COVID-19 cases in recent weeks. The country has recorded more than 2.3 million infections and a death toll of over 69,000.

President Hassan Rouhani said earlier this month that Washington had blocked Tehran’s access to ten million doses of a coronavirus vaccine by pressuring the companies that were transferring the vaccines to Iran.

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There are currently 3.5 million foreign nationals working in the country, he stated, IRNA reported on Saturday.

The impact of the pandemic on livelihoods has been particularly severe for refugees, who usually rely on precarious and unstable jobs. Many can no longer cover their most basic needs, let alone the costs of health insurance and treatment costs.

Two million foreign nationals residing in Iran

Deputy interior minister Javad Naserian said in February that about one million documented foreign nationals are residing in Iran, and perhaps another one million are illegally living in the country.

At the end of 2018, Iran hosted close to one million refugees, making it the sixth-largest refugee host country in the world. The country was also the eighth largest refugee-hosting country in the world in 2019, hosting 951,142 Afghan refugees and 28,268 Iraqi refugees, according to the UNHCR.

One of the largest and most protracted urban refugee populations in the world is living in Iran; about 97 percent of refugees live in urban and semi-urban areas, while three percent are residing in 20 refugee resorts run by the UNHCR’s main government counterpart.

Undocumented Afghans have access to free primary health services and similarly free COVID-19 related testing, treatment, and hospitalization, just like nationals.

Education, health for foreign nationals 

Many of the refugees living in Iran are the second and third generation, according to the UNHCR.

There are 40,000 Afghan students in the country, according to the official report, 17,000 of them are graduated, while the unofficial report is estimated at 26,000.

Some 47,000 people were trained and 10 percent of legal refugees were covered by social insurance with the help of the UNHCR, and other foreign nationals can pay for health insurance like Iranians.

In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, undocumented Afghans have access to free primary health services and similarly free COVID-19 related testing, treatment, and hospitalization, just like nationals.

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