Iran Reaches Daily Record of Over 1m Covid Vaccine Jabs

Iran gave out a record of over one million Covid-19 vaccines in a single day after it received large shipments of the Chinese Sinopharm to immunize its population of 85 million people.
In the past 24 hours, the Health Ministry administered 1.112 million coronavirus vaccines, bringing the total number of shots given to 31.450 million, ISNA reported on Wednesday.
So far, some 20.5 million people have received a first dose and 10.8 million people have been fully vaccinated. 
Iran has ramped up vaccine rollout to curb the fifth wave of the outbreak driven by the highly transmissible Delta variant. 
Only in the past ten days, 1,180 people have become infected with the mutation and 25 have died from it every hour. 
The Health Ministry on Wednesday logged a further 538 mortalities which took the national toll to 112,430.
It also reported 26,800 new infections, pushing the tally of cases to 5.210 million. 

Vaccine for Children

One of Iran’s homegrown vaccines are safe for children, head of Pasteur Institute of Iran, Alireza Biglari, announced on Wednesday. 
“PastuCovac is one of the safe and accessible vaccines for children,” he said, pointing to research carried out in Cuba on children that authorized its use on toddlers.
Iran and Cuba have jointly manufactured the two-shot vaccine. If delivered with a booster, the vaccine can be 91.2% effective against the coronavirus. 
Biglari noted, “So far, children had not been a priority for inoculation, their vaccination will be decided on in coming weeks.”
Cuba is the first country in the world to administer coronavirus vaccines to children as young as two. 
PastuCovac could pave the day for school reopenings across the country after over one year of distance learning. 
Education Ministry on Tuesday announced that physical presence of students in schools and universities is not possible until more people are vaccinated.  
Only students pursuing higher education can, if necessary, return to educational institutions to complete their theses. 
Iran closed down schools and universities shortly after the Covid pandemic emerged in the country in February 2020.