U.S. sanctions serious obstacle to Iran’s access to anti-COVID items: Minister

International Desk

U.S. unilateral sanctions against the Islamic Republic have seriously hindered Iran’s basic right to have access to the medical items required for the fight against COVID-19 pandemic, said the health minister.

Bahram Einollahi made the remarks in an address to a high-ranking United Nations General Assembly debate to boost the momentum of universal COVID-19 vaccination, IRNA reported.

Over the past two years since the outbreak, he added, the world has been grappling with an unprecedented situation.

“Despite the tangible progress made in the fight against the virus, the governments and peoples are still suffering from the pandemic’s multifaceted consequences.”

The minister said scientific effort in vaccine production is the key to saving the people’s lives, listing the main reasons for the failure in ending the pandemic as unfair distribution, hoarding of the jabs, and lack of transparency by vaccine producers.

He called on the World Health Organization to facilitate and accelerate the Emergency Use Listing Procedure for Iran as a COVID vaccine producer.  

Casualties

The Iranian Health Ministry announced in a statement on Sunday that the country’s daily COVID-19 fatalities and infections stood at 241 and 9,524.

The total COVID-19 deaths and infections since the beginning of the outbreak in the country in late February 2020 stand at 136,631 and 7,040,467, respectively.

The ministry said 4,049 ‎people are in critical condition, and 1,682 new patients have been hospitalized.

According to the statement, so far 6,634,126 people have either recovered or been discharged from hospitals, and 47,168,989 diagnostic tests have been carried out in the country.

By Sunday, 62,739,635 Iranians had received their first dose of the COVID-19 ‎vaccine, including 55,418,020, who had taken two jabs, and 22,992,757 who had received the third, booster shot, bringing the total number of administered doses to 141,150,412.

On December 19, Iran reported its first case of the COVID-19 Omicron variant. The spread of the new strain has sparked the sixth wave of infections in the country, as it has currently become the prevailing variant.

Reduced referrals

In remarks on Sunday, Dr. Masoud Mardani, a member of the National Task Force for Fighting the Coronavirus, said based on field observations, the number of people referred to medical centers across the country with COVID-19 symptoms has witnessed a 50 percent decline, IRNA reported.

He added the country’s COVID hospitalizations is also decreasing.

Mardani pointed out that the number of Iranian cities coded red (very high-risk) in terms of the coronavirus spread has dropped to 184, noting that Iran is past the peak of deaths and infections in the sixth wave of the pandemic.  

Source: Iran Daily