Rouhani Prioritizes Students’ Presence in Schools

President Hassan Rouhani on Wednesday said his administration’s priority is the return of students to schools while adhering to safety regulations, as the coronavirus pandemic took the lives of 125 more patients across Iran.  
During the weekly Cabinet meeting, Rouhani said the next school year, beginning on Saturday, will see an effort to use a combination of online and in-person classes, but his preference is the attendance of pupils inside classrooms, President.ir reported.
He, nevertheless, noted the importance of e-learning, pointing to the Education Ministry’s Shad application, which gives public schools a platform to connect teachers and students in a safe environment.
“Today, I ordered the Plan and Budget Organization as well as the ICT Ministry to provide free internet for Shad, so students and families pay no cost,” the president said.
Rouhani stressed that no student should be left out of the education system, adding that state TV will also use its resources to grant learners access to educational content.
Schools closed days after the outbreak was detected in the then-epicenter of Qom, located in central parts of Iran. 
The use of internet in the last school year drew criticism, as many students in underdeveloped regions lacked the technological means to participate in classes.

Distribution of Influenza Vaccine

With demand for the influenza vaccine surging around the world as countries prepare for the concurrence of the influenza season and the Covid-19 outbreak during autumn, Iranian officials are devising plans to regulate the purchase of the sought-after vaccine.
Heydar Mohammadi, an official with Iran’s Food and Drug Administration, told ISNA that influenza vaccines will become available to the public by mid-September. 
According to Mohammadi, the ID number of each individual purchasing the vaccine will be registered so as to prevent its trade on the black market.
“We are making efforts to import a majority of vaccine doses by late September,” he added.
Iran has recorded a total of 378,000 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus and 21,800 deaths as of Wednesday, according to health officials.
At least 125 patients died from Covid-19 within a 24-hour period, the spokeswoman for the Health Ministry, Sima Sadat Lari, was quoted as saying by ISNA on Wednesday. The overnight toll is the highest in eight days.
Some 1,850 tested positive for the coronavirus on Wednesday, 61% of whom had developed severe symptoms to require hospitalization, Lari added.
Iran has carried out 3.28 million coronavirus tests in the past few months. Over 326,000 have recovered from the infectious disease and 3,693 are in serious condition.
Global Covid-19 cases neared 26 million on Wednesday and fatalities crossed 862,000.