Referring to Turkey, he said that all tours to the country have been canceled since Monday except for cargo flight which are done in compliance with the health protocols.

The Iranian health ministry announced on Tuesday that 17,430 new cases of coronavirus infection have been reported across the country during the past 24 hours, adding that 174 patients have passed away in the same period of time.

“A sum of 17,430 new patients infected with COVID-19 have been identified in the country based on confirmed diagnosis criteria during the past 24 hours,” Iranian Health Ministry Spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari said, and added, “2,369 patients have been hospitalized during the same time span.”

She added that the total number of COVID-19 patients has increased to 1,963,394.

“Unfortunately, 174 patients have lost their lives in the past 24 hours, increasing the number of the dead to 63,506,” the spokeswoman noted.

Lari expressed satisfaction that 1,667,079 coronavirus patients have recovered or been discharged from hospitals so far.

The spokeswoman further said that 4,138 cases infected with COVID-19 are in critical conditions.

She went on to say that 13,256,820 coronavirus diagnosis tests have so far been carried out across the country.

Lari warned that 88 cities are rated red, 139 cities are orange, 198 cities are yellow and 23 are blue.

Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani said in January that 3 home-made coronavirus vaccines produced by the country’s scientists will be mass-produced and injected to millions of Iranian nationals late in Spring or early Summer.

“We can almost say that next year, at the beginning of Summer or the end of Spring, we will have three vaccines (developed by the three institutes of) Barekat, Razi and Pasteur,” President Rouhani said, addressing a meeting of the national coronavirus campaign headquarters in Tehran.

“We will have these three domestic vaccines next (Iranian) year (which starts on March 20, 2021) and we hope to have some of them in the Spring and some in Summer, and from now until the end of the year, except for COVAX, which we will have our share of, we will import more than 16 million doses of vaccines,” he added.

Rouhani assured the nation that efforts are being made to start vaccination in the country in February, saying, “This is very important.”

He also stressed the necessity for meeting all protocols to prevent the spread of Britain-originated and South Africa-originated coronavirus vaccines.

Iranian Deputy Health Minister Iraj Harirchi had earlier said that the country’s home-made coronavirus vaccines develop immunity against the new British virus too.

The home-made COVID-19 vaccines enjoy “satisfactory quality”, Harirchi said.

The vaccines are also effective against the British coronavirus, he said, adding that if the virus reveals new aspects, fresh research will be carried out.

Harirchi underlined that the Iranian private companies have achieved good success in manufacturing the COVID-19 vaccines.

Head of Iran’s Headquarters for Executing the Order of Imam (HEIKO) Mohammad Mokhber had also said that the volunteers who have received the country’s home-made coronavirus vaccine in the human trial phase have shown no side-effect yet.

Addressing a ceremony to unveil a number of home-made medicine produced by Barekat Foundation, Mokhber said that several people across the world have died after injection of the coronavirus vaccines produced by foreign companies.

“This is while the Iranian vaccine already tested on 14 volunteers has produced no side-effects until this moment,” he said.

“Given the laboratory research on this type of vaccine and the positive assessments of scientific aspects, the country will no doubt mass-produce the vaccine and we will grow self-sufficient in this regard,” Mokhber said.

He had said the country will mass-produce its domestically developed coronavirus vaccine within the next 3 months, declaring the start of the third phase of testing the home-made vaccine on volunteers.

Also, in January, Head of Pasteur Institute of Iran Alireza Biglari said that the country’s home-made vaccines will be ready for the nation’s vaccination late in spring if they pass all tests successfully.

“The Health Ministry is trying to provide the necessary vaccines from foreign sources for priority groups; also, really good efforts are being made to produce domestically-produced vaccines and co-produce them with other countries,” Biglari said.

“But regarding the domestically-produced vaccines, the most optimistic case is that we can have the domestically-produced vaccines for public vaccination in June if all plans succeed,” he added.

Biglari explained that Iran’s vaccine produced jointly with foreign states will go for extensive human trial phase in March, while public vaccination could start in June.

Rouhani said in June 2020 that over 1,000 medical centers in the country have received necessary equipment to conduct tests on people suspected of infection to coronavirus, and added that Iran ranks first in the Muslim world in scientific achievements.

“Based on a report [by the health ministry], 1,200 centers across the country are ready to take samples and tests from people and 17,500 nursing and health homes are also prepared to provide hygiene and treatment services to people,” Rouhani said, addressing a meeting of the national coronavirus campaign headquarters in Tehran.

Also, in August last year, he said that 1,500 hospital beds for special cases have also been added to the capacity of the country’s medical system since the outbreak of coronavirus in the country, noting that drug production lines are also added every month to the country’s pharmaceutical capacity.

The coronavirus COVID-19 is affecting approximately all countries and territories around the world. The virus was first reported in the central Chinese city of Wuhan late 2019. It has so far killed over 2.87 million people and infected over 132.4 million others globally.

The Iranian foreign ministry declared that despite Washington’s claims of cooperation to transfer drugs to Iran via the new Swiss-launched payment mechanism, the US is troubling the process amid the coronavirus outbreak in the country.

Although US claims that medicines and medical equipment are not under sanctions, they have practically blocked the transfer of Iran’s financial resources in other countries into the Swiss Humanitarian Trade Arrangement (SHTA), former Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Seyed Abbas Mousavi said.

As the death toll from the virus surges, Iran intensifies its preventive safety measures. Closures of schools and most universities have been extended until further notice.

Rouhani on September 12, 2020 blasted the US administration for blocking the country’s efforts to receive loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to fight against coronavirus, saying that the American officials have forgotten humanity.

“We demanded the IMF for $5bln to assist us during the coronavirus outbreak for vaccine and medicine; all parties have voiced their agreement, but the US does not allow us to take the loan. They have distanced themselves from humanity to such an extent,” Rouhani said.

He added that even the friendly states whose banks are holding Iran’s money have been pressured by the US not to provide the country with access to its assets.

“History has not witnessed such a crime, as you may not find any other country that cannot withdraw money from foreign banks to purchase and import medicine for its people,” Rouhani said.

He, meantime, said that the Americans are angry with the Iranian government’s appropriate management of the coronavirus outbreak despite the harshest-ever sanctions imposed on the country.

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“serious public disorder” on the scale of the 2011 riots – particularly if curbs on freedoms have to be reimposed.

Professor Clifford Stott predicted a tinderbox from a combination of inequality, anger at the police, enforcement of restrictions becoming “pretty impossible” and lingering anger over the Dominic Cummings affair.

Trouble would escalate if “localized lockdowns” brought tougher rules for people living in poorer areas than in affluent neighborhoods, the member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) said, The Independent reported.

“If the police don’t invest in building positive police-community relations now, there is a potential for serious and large public disorder to emerge this summer,” Prof Stott warned.

“I think in the worst-case scenario it’s not inconceivable that we could have disorder on a scale equivalent to August 2011.

“There are important issues about inequality that could, if not dealt with properly, feed into a situation in the future over the summer months where confrontations develop.”

Prof Stott described the idea of local lockdowns as “very, very problematic”, days after mayors in the northwest – the region where they are thought most likely – called them unenforceable.

And he warned enforcing existing restrictions was already “pretty impossible now to a large extent”, after the Black Lives Matter protests were allowed to go ahead despite a supposed ban on marches.

Warning the police would feel pressure to crack down on gatherings on housing estates, the scientific adviser said: “I think that could create a circumstance when lots of young men feel it’s unfair about what’s happening to them.

“And where the police try to enforce that unfairness, it could create a breakdown in social cohesion, lead to a sense of unfairness in policing. We know that those factors are often drivers for social conflict.”

And, on Johnson’s aide’s lockdown-breach, he added: “The loss of trust and confidence that has been brought about by the Cummings affair has not assisted in maintaining that adherence, I think that’s quite clear.”

In August 2011, riots swept England – and five people died – in protests sparked by the fatal police shooting of Mark Duggan in north London.

In the following days, the disturbances spread to Birmingham, Bristol, Coventry, Derby, Leicester, Liverpool, Manchester, Nottingham, West Bromwich, and Wolverhampton.

Calling on the authorities to be ready, Prof Stott told the PA news agency: “What we need to do is to make sure we start addressing the underlying causes now so that the conditions that led to the 2011 riots are not in place should we get a precipitating incident.

“Put simply, the most effective thing that the police can do is put bobbies on the beat.”

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WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that while some states were considering ways to ease the restrictions which have placed around half of humanity under some form of lockdown, doing so too quickly could be dangerous, AFP reported.

“I know that some countries are already planning the transition out of stay-at-home restrictions. WHO wants to see restrictions lifted as much as anyone,” he told a virtual press conference in Geneva.

“At the same time, lifting restrictions too quickly could lead to a deadly resurgence. The way down can be as dangerous as the way up if not managed properly.

“WHO is working with affected countries on strategies for gradually and safely easing restrictions.”

Tedros spelled out six factors that should be considered before restrictions could be safely eased.

He said that transmission would have to be controlled; sufficient public health services made available; outbreak risks in care homes minimized; preventative measures imposed in workplaces and schools; virus importation risks managed, and communities made aware of and engaged in the transition.

Africa acceleration

The global death toll has gone over 100,000. More than 1.6 million infections have been recorded globally, according to an AFP tally, since the virus first emerged in China in December.

Tedros welcomed signs that its spread was slowing in some of the hardest-hit countries in Europe — citing Spain, Italy, Germany, and France.

But he also warned of an “alarming acceleration” of the virus elsewhere, highlighting Africa, where he said it was beginning to emerge in rural areas.

“We are now seeing clusters of cases and community spread in more than 16 countries” on the continent, the former Ethiopian health minister said.

“We anticipate severe hardship for already overstretched health systems, particularly in rural areas, which normally lack the resources of those in cities.”

Tedros said that even the countries with the world’s strongest health systems had been caught by surprise by COVID-19. He urged them to reinforce their health care provision rather than plunge into a “cycle of panic and neglect”.

In many countries, “we’re now in a phase of panic because there is this dangerous, invisible virus which is wreaking havoc,” he said.

“But that should actually lead to asking questions on what to do to strengthen our system.

“No country is immune.”

Exit strategy

The WHO director-general also said he was particularly concerned by the large numbers of cases being recorded among health workers — with more than 10 percent reportedly infected in some nations.

“When health workers are at risk, we’re all at risk,” he said.

Tedros said evidence from some countries, including China, Italy, and the United States, showed that health workers were being infected outside health care facilities, in their homes and communities.

Switching to the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, he said a new case had been reported, just three days before a deadline that would have marked the official end to the long epidemic.

WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan said some 2,600 alerts were still being investigated every day in the DRC, with thousands of samples taken every week.

“Maybe that’s our lesson for COVID-19: There is no exit strategy until you’re in control of the situation, and you must always be ready to go back again and start again,” he said.

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