Covid Infrastructure to Be Maintained for Future Diseases

Consultant to Health Minister Mohammad Pourhosseini on Sunday called for the perseveration of the critical infrastructure and systems established during the Covid-19 pandemic for possible future disease outbreaks. 
“We should not forget the specialized committees and the six centers for vaccine production,” Pourhosseini was quoted as saying by ISNA. 
The official made the remarks during a meeting of the taskforce to fight Covid attended by Health Ministry authorities. 
“The coronavirus taught us many lessons and of course we shouldn’t forget that this disease is not over yet,” he said, adding that many subvariants were still active and spreading in countries around the world. 
The World Health Organization in May declared an end to the pandemic as a global public health emergency but warned governments against dismantling the systems they had set up to tackle the outbreak. 
The taskforce also reported the latest data on Covid subvariants in the country, protocols for future waves, vaccination rates and safety measures for groups most vulnerable to the infectious disease. 
Daily Covid cases and fatalities have been on a downward trend since April when the eighth wave of the respiratory illness subsided. Over 146,000 Iranians died due to the pandemic.