President Rouhani noted that the coronavirus outbreak is a national issue and all should join hands to tackle the pandemic and help each other weather the current situation.

“No one should get political mileage from this issue to handle partisan and factional matters or advance electoral objectives,” he said.

“Despite a rise in the number of infections during this surge, the death tally during the fourth wave was fortunately the same as that in the third surge, which indicates an improvement in the skills of medical personnel and their efforts as well as further compliance with health protocols by people,” the president added.

He then touched upon the necessity of inoculation to tackle the disease.

“At this juncture, we need to import foreign vaccines, and we are going to wait until home-made vaccines are ready before starting the vaccination,” he said.

He expressed hope top-priority groups, which include the elderly and those suffering from underlying diseases, will get the jab before the tenure of his administration is over.

The president reiterated the importance of using face masks, observing social distancing rules, avoiding family and social gatherings, and avoiding crowded places to contain the disease.

The President underlined: “We hope that vaccination will be carried out in Iran by the end of this Iranian year (March 20, 2022). Part of it will be done in this government’s tenure and the other part in the next government, and we will reach the point that everyone’s desires are fulfilled.”

Stressing that the coronavirus issue is a national, human, and moral one, Rouhani urged the corona issue should not be exploited as a political tool for dealing with the party and factional issues or for election. This is a national issue and we should all work and go hand in hand to get rid of this virus as soon as possible.”

Meanwhile the spokesman for the National Task Force for Fighting Coronavirus said, fortunately, the fourth COVID wave in the country was decreasing.

Reporting about the meeting of the National Task Force for Fighting Coronavirus on Saturday, Alireza Raisi stated that due to people’s cooperation and compliance with health protocols, the coronavirus trend in Iran had been decreasing; however, the number of hospitalized patients was still high.

“According to coronavirus status, 46 cities are red, 263 are orange, and 139 are yellow, while there has been a report of 301 red cities in previous days,” he noted.

He added that the coronavirus trend in 26 provinces had been decreasing, while in 5 provinces, the trend had not been decreasing quickly.

Raisi underlined that Tehran, Northern Khorasan, West Azerbaijan, and Hormozgan provinces needed more care and observation, although the increasing trend in these provinces had halted.

“There are also travel restrictions in all cities in the current week amid Eid Al-Fitr holidays, regardless of their coronavirus status to control the situation,” he highlighted.

Referring to the vaccination process, he added that if anyone above 80 were not vaccinated yet, they could register at www.Salamat.org today, and promised that no one’s turn would be neglected.

“All Iran’s borders are controlled to avoid the possible entrance of any new COVID variant,” Raisi concluded.

The post Trend of COVID-19 Infection on Decline in Iran appeared first on Iran News Daily.

Speaking in an event to honor healthcare workers, Deputy for Health in the Ministry of Health and Medical Education said that Iran’s health network, founded 30 years ago by great healthcare figures, is a strong point that reaches across the country so that no village with over 1,000 people population is deprived of the health network.

In addition to Health Houses – small local health centers, Raisi said, there are over 2,500 medical centers in cities and countryside, and the centers are all connected to hospitals and specialized centers.

These centers in the health network managed to carry out three rounds of COVID-19 screening across the country and it is now extending to the nomad population, according to the Deputy Minister.

He also underlined that the health network will upgrade from primary healthcare to a universal health coverage system (UHC); the transmission is now in the pilot phase.

Several COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing projects have been developed in Iran and some of them have undergone clinical tests.

Meanwhile yesterday, a second locally-manufactured COVID-19 vaccine has entered human trials in Iran.

The human trial of the vaccine, called Razi COV-Pars, kick-started on Sunday morning with the injection into two volunteers at Tehran’s Rasoul Akram Hospital.

This is the second Iranian vaccine that has entered the human trial after, COVIRAN vaccine made headlines as the first viable Iranian-made vaccine for the coronavirus last month.

Developed by Razi Vaccine and Serum Research Institute, COV-Pars is an inhalable vaccine. It employs recombinant versions of the spike protein, which tutors the immune system against the wild virus. This works with an adjuvant, a compound that puts frontline immune cells on battle alert to muster a robust immune response to the protein antigen.

COV-Pars is administered in three stages; two intramuscular shots 21 days apart and an intranasal administration 30 days after the second jab.

Developers say not only does this protect the recipient from the virus, but it prevents them from transmitting the virus to others. Simply put, those who receive the COV-Pars vaccine will not need a mask.

Its domestic rival, Coviran, is ahead in the schedule, and as it will reportedly start the second phase of the human trial next month. At the same time, Iran has imported two batches of Russia’s Sputnik V and a batch of China’s Sinopharm to vaccinate sensitive groups.

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