Daily Covid-19 Death Toll Hits New Record

Iran logged an all-time record of 496 deaths caused by the fourth wave of the Covid-19 pandemic on Monday, as the virus rampaged through the country.
The Health Ministry reported the highest single-day jump in overnight fatalities since the start of the pandemic in Iran, which pushed the national toll past the 70,000 mark, ISNA reported.
Authorities, including President Hassan Rouhani, had warned about a further surge of infections and deaths over the course of this week and the next, pointing to “very difficult and crucial” weeks ahead.
The total number of infections surpassed 2.4 million on Monday after 21,000 more people tested positive for Covid-19. Some 3,700 of them were admitted to hospitals.
Iran is accelerating its national vaccination campaign to curb the fourth wave of the outbreak. As of Monday, nearly 653,000 have received the first doses of the vaccine and 171,000 have been fully vaccinated, taking the total number of shots to 824,000.

Phase III of Iran-Cuba Vaccine

Phase 3 of clinical trials for a Covid-19 vaccine jointly produced by Iran and Cuba was launched on Monday during an event attended by Health Minister Saeed Namaki in Isfahan.
“Today, our country has produced one of the best and most effective vaccines in the world in the Pasteur Institute of Iran,” Namaki said.
Cuba announced in January that it has signed an agreement with Tehran to transfer the technology for its leading vaccine candidate to Iran and carry out human trials.
Developed by Cuba’s Finlay Vaccine Institute and Pasteur Institute of Iran, the vaccine is dubbed SOBERANA 02, Spanish for sovereign. The vaccine will be tested on 24,000 volunteers from different cities.
Iran concluded the first phase of its vaccination program with jabs imported from Russia, India, China and AstraZeneca vaccines delivered to the country under COVAX, a global initiative for the fair distribution of corona vaccines around the world.
“Starting Tuesday, the second phase of the national vaccination campaign starts with the inoculation of people over 80 years,” Spokesman of National Coronavirus Headquarters Alireza Raeisi announced.
Healthcare personnel and disabled veterans were among those vaccinated in the first phase of vaccination.
Iran is aiming to achieve mass immunity by the end of 2021.
Worldwide Covid-19 cases increased to 147.88 million on Monday and the disease’s death toll reached 3.12 million.