Iran: Homegrown Vaccines Rollout in Coming Days

Iranian authorities will start to roll out two homegrown vaccines in the coming days to immunize adult volunteers against Covid-19 as preliminary results estimate an 80-90% efficacy rate. 
“Considering the success of clinical trials, authorization for voluntary and mass use of these vaccines will be issued over the next few days,” spokesman for Iran’s Food and Drug Administration, Kianoush Jahanpour, was quoted as saying by IRNA.
One of the vaccines, dubbed COV-Iran Barekat, was manufactured by Execution of Imam Khomeini’s Order (EIKO) and the other, Soberana-02, was jointly produced by Pasteur Institute of Iran and Cuba’s Finlay Vaccine Institute.
Both vaccines are yet to complete clinical trials. Cuba also began vaccinating its population against the disease before phase three of human trials for Soberana ended some two weeks ago.
Jahanpour said, “The safety and efficacy of both vaccines are acceptable. We cannot announce the exact efficacy rate before trials conclude but both figures are somewhere between 80 to 90%.”
Health Minister Saeed Namaki said on Monday that he will be the first to receive one of the homegrown vaccines to inspire confidence in the locally-developed products.
“The inoculation program is going well. By late June, we’ll have inoculated our target groups, people over the age of 60 and those suffering from rare diseases,” the minister stated.
He added, “Some 80% of deaths occur among these two groups. Their vaccination can prevent at least 80% of fatalities.”
After reaching this target, the health official noted that the vaccination program will carry on with a combination of imported and homegrown vaccines. 
Iran is currently inoculating people with Russia’s Sputnik V, AstraZeneca manufactured by South Korea and Italy, India’s Covaxin and China’s Sinopharm.
In addition to Soberena-02 and Barekat, Iran is testing three other experimental vaccines. One is manufactured by the renowned Razi Vaccine and Serum Research Institute, the other is being produced by the Ministry of Defence and the fifth local vaccine has been developed by a private company.

Deaths Top 80,000

Deaths from the Covid-19 pandemic in Iran rose past the 80,000 mark on Monday after the Health Ministry registered 217 new fatalities. 
Some 11,000 people tested positive for the viral infection on Monday, taking the national tally of cases to 2.913 million, ISNA reported.
According to the Health Ministry’s daily update, so far, 3.643 million have received the first dose of a coronavirus vaccine and over 522,000 have been fully vaccinated, taking the total number of shots administered to 4.166 million. 
The private sector has gotten the greenlight to import coronavirus vaccine jabs. A member of Tehran’s Chamber of Commerce, Naser Riahi, said, “The first step is to import one million doses of previously-bought AstraZeneca jabs.”
“The next step is to purchase three million shots of China’s Sinopharm vaccine,” Riahi added. The vaccines will arrive in the country in shipments of 200,000 to 250,000 jabs at a time. 
Iran is targeting to inoculate its population of 80 million people by March 2022. 
Worldwide Covid-19 cases surpassed 171 million on Monday and fatalities caused by the disease rose to 3.557 million.