TEHRAN -- Outgoing President Hassan Rouhani on Saturday referred to the coronavirus vaccine and handling of the vaccination program in Iran as a major success which he attributed to his administration.
Addressing the last meeting of the Coronavirus Fight National Headquarters during his tenure, Rouhani claimed that one of his administration’s major successes relates to the coronavirus vaccine and its handling.
He said his administration also prevented polarities in the society with regard to people’s healthcare, adding all parties and groups with various tendencies helped the administration with a united voice battle the COVID-19 pandemic.
Rouhani touched on Iran’s reliance on domestic capabilities to cope with demand for medical products and equipment after the outbreak of the pandemic in February 2020.
He also hailed the Coronavirus Fight National Headquarters that was set up upon a decision made by Supreme National Security Council and approved by Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei.
All decisions made by the headquarters have always been based upon collective wisdom, Rouhani said, adding that none of its decisions has been contrary to the scientific principles or the modern world processes.
Last month, Health Minister Saeed Namaki said Iran woul d become one of the world’s biggest producers of the coronavirus vaccine by the end of summer.
Iran has already granted emergency use authorization to Russian-made Sputnik V vaccine, Covaxin made by India’s Bharat Biotech, Oxford/AstraZeneca developed by Russia’s R-Pharm Group, and AstraZeneca-SKBio made in South Korea.
In June, Iran approved its flagship Coviran Barekat vaccine for emergency use. Another homegrown vaccine, the Pasteur vaccine, has been also developed as part of a joint experiment with Cuban scientists.
Iran has three other coronavirus vaccine candidates, including two being developed by scientists in the country’s armed forces and one by the Razi Vaccine and Serum Research Institute.
On Saturday, Iran recorded another 286 corornavirus deaths in the past 24 hours, raising overall toll to 90,630.
Health Ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari said the number infections surpassed 3,871,000 after 19,846 new cases were detected during the period.
More than 3,367,270 patients have recovered so far or been discharged from hospital, she added.
Among them, 5,455 patients are kept in intensive care units. According to Lari, over 9.55 million people have received the first dose of the coronavirus vaccine.
The number of people infected with COVID-19 across the world has surpassed 198 million and the death toll has exceeded 4.2 million.