Iran Passes 1.5m Coronavirus Infections

Iran’s tally of Covid-19 infections rose past 1.5 million on Friday, the Health Ministry announced, as the second shipment of Russian-developed vaccine Sputnik V arrived in the country.
Nearly 11 months after the deadly virus was first spotted in Iran, the total number of cases crossed the 1.5 million mark on Friday, IRNA reported.
Spokesperson for Iran’s Food and Drug Administration, Kianoush Jahanpour, also said. “The second shipment of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine is to be delivered on Friday containing 200,000 shots to be used on 100,000 people,” 
Iran has set a goal of immunizing 10 million people against the viral infection by the end of spring 2021. After receiving 20,000 doses of the vaccine last week, Iran launched its vaccination program on Tuesday, immunizing frontline health workers as its top priority group.
A batch of Sputnik V vaccines will arrive in the country every ten days, Jahanpour said, adding that, “As per the agreement with Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology, eventually two million doses will be delivered to Iran.”
Iran is also planning the joint manufacture of Sputnik V with Russia before the end of the year, launching a production line over the next few days.
According to Jahanpour, 1.3 million people, roughly the entire number of health personnel across the nation, will be vaccinated before the yearend. 

Chinese & Indian Vaccines

Pointing out that only Sputnik V has obtained regulatory approval from Iran’s FDA, Jahanpour said, “India’s Bharat Biotech vaccine and China’s Sinopharm are currently under review.”
The health official noted that one or both of the vaccines will most likely get the greenlight before the start of the new Irian year on March 21.
Iran’s pre-purchased share of the COVAX scheme, a World Health Organization-backed initiative aiming to secure fair access to Covid-19 vaccines for poor countries, will begin to arrive in Iran in spring. 
“In the first stage, we’ll receive 4.2 million shots of South Korean-developed AstraZeneca from COVAX,” Jahanpour said. “A total of 16.8 million doses are to be delivered to Iran.”
Some 7,300 tested positive for the novel coronavirus on Friday, spokeswoman for the Health Ministry, Sima Sadat Lari, said.
“Over the past 24 hours, 58 coronavirus patients lost their lives, bringing the death toll to 58,809,” she said.
Over 1.28 million have recovered from the respiratory illness and 3,700 are in critical condition, Lari said.
“Iran has administered more than 9.93 million diagnostic tests,” she said.
Worldwide coronavirus cases increased to 108.3 million on Friday and the death toll reached 2.3 million.