Vaccination of High-Risk Groups to Start Soon

Iran will soon start vaccinating its high-risk population against Covid-19, President Hassan Rouhani announced on Wednesday.
"Last night, I ordered Health Minister Saeed Namaki to purchase the vaccine from one of the manufacturing countries," he said, without specifying which one of the vaccines developed so far would be imported.
The president noted that the United States sanctions have hindered access to the vaccines that can immunize the public against the respiratory contagion that has already killed over 50,000 Iranians, IRNA reported.
Stressing that the "vicious lot" in the White House have created obstacles to any transaction, he said, "It takes months to do something that would normally take one phone call, message or a SWIFT transaction. The money is ready, the resolve, the decision and the order are all there, but the US impedes. We will overcome these problems, at whatever cost.”
Following the president’s speech, Namaki also said issues related to the purchase of Covid-19 vaccine doses will “soon” be resolved, but did not give a date. 
On Tuesday, Britain became the first Western country to launch a nationwide vaccination program.
Mostafa Qanei, the head of the Science Committee of National Coronavirus Headquarters, announced that three domestic Covid-19 vaccines will commence human trials next month.
Rouhani also said the headquarters on Saturday will discuss a proposal for increasing the number of buses to thin out the overcrowded vehicles in cities.
The government has been criticized for months over its failure to increase the capacity of the public transit, especially in the capital of Tehran.
Even before the third wave of infections hit the country, Iraj Harirchi, an official with the Health Ministry, noted that the public transport system in Tehran accounts for 25% of virus transmissions.
Iran is planning to import 39 million shots in the coming months to immunize 19 million people, starting with healthcare personnel, the elderly and those with pre-exiting health conditions who constitute the high-risk group.

Red Cities Decline 

Namaki on Wednesday announced that the number of cities across the country on red alert has "significantly declined" from 160 on Nov. 21 to only 34.
According to the health minister, the 160 red cities, 208 orange cities and 80 yellow counties have reduced to 34, 260 and 154, respectively.
"On average, beds occupied by coronavirus patients have reduced by 30%," he said.
Health Ministry’s Spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari, during her daily briefing on Wednesday said, "Within the past 24 hours, 295 Covid patients lost their lives, bringing the national death toll to 51,212," IRNA reported.
A further 10,220 patients took the total number of people who have contracted the coronavirus to over 1.076 million.
Lari said that so far, 765,000 have recovered from the disease and 5,779 are in critical condition.
Iran has carried out 6.5 million diagnostic tests since the start of the pandemic, she added.
Worldwide coronavirus infections surged past 68.7 million and fatalities rose to 1.56 million.