Top Priority for Coronavirus Inoculation Given to ICU Staff

Health Minister Saeed Namaki announced that Iran’s vaccination campaign is to start on Tuesday and intensive care staff are the top priority to receive the shot.
“We’ll begin vaccination with frontline health workers on Tuesday morning,” Namaki was quoted as saying by ISNA on Sunday.
Iran has purchased Russian-developed coronavirus vaccine Sputnik V to immunize its population. The first shipment of the vaccine arrived in Tehran on Thursday, enough to vaccinate 10,000. 
“We were the first nation to start negotiating about Sputnik V, but the 15th to buy it … so as to make sure the vaccine is safe and reliable,” the minister noted.
In addition to imports, two local vaccines have launched human trials and a third is under consideration to obtain regulatory approval for human testing. 
“A domestic vaccine will be available by early spring,” Namaki said, adding that the first phase of human trials for the vaccine manufactured by Razi Vaccine and Serum Research Institute began on Sunday.
The intranasal protein-based vaccine can potentially trigger a stronger immune response by targeting the virus at its point of attack, the mouth and the nose. Iran’s first experimental vaccine, dubbed CoV Iran Barkat, is produced from dead or weakened virus and injected into the arm.
Iran reported some 7,000 coronavirus infections on Sunday, pushing the national tally to 1.466 million, Sima Sadat Lari, spokeswoman for the Health Ministry, said.
The health official said, “Over the past 24 hours, 57 Covid-19 patients lost their lives, taking the total toll to 58,469.”
More than 1.25 million have recovered from the contagion and 3,800 are in critical condition, Lari said.
“Iran has carried out 9.66 million PCR tests since the start of the pandemic,” she said.
Coronavirus cases around the world surged to 106.4 million on Monday and fatalities rose to 2.32 million.