Coronavirus statistics in Iran; Rouhani says "the government kept its word on the vaccination issue"

Two days after the deputy head of Iran's Health Ministry "apologized" to the Iranian people for the government's failure to fulfill its promises regarding coronavirus vaccination, Iran's president said on Thursday that "we have kept our word on the vaccination issue."

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani claimed on Thursday, July 21, that the government had fulfilled its responsibility regarding the coronavirus and sanctions.

He continued by saying that by allocating $500 million to purchase vaccines, "thank God, the vaccines will be imported and the domestic vaccine will also be on the market, and we can say that better conditions will be observed in the coming week."

Mr. Rouhani continued that more than 9 million people have been vaccinated so far and 300-400 thousand people are being vaccinated daily, "so we can say that we have kept our word on the issue of vaccination."

Rouhani's statements come as, after several months of public criticism and protests over the lack of imports of the coronavirus vaccine and the slow vaccination process in Iran, Iraj Harirchi, Deputy General of the Iranian Ministry of Health, admitted on Tuesday evening, July 20, that the Iranian government failed to fulfill its promises regarding coronavirus vaccination.

The Deputy Minister of Health said in a television program that "regardless of the extent of the negligence and fault and whose fault this negligence and fault is, I apologize to the people for not being able to fulfill the promises made regarding broader vaccination."

Officials of the Islamic Republic, including the Minister of Health and President Hassan Rouhani, have repeatedly promised to produce a domestic vaccine or announced the import of some non-Iranian vaccines in recent months.

However, criticism of the lack of vaccine imports began when Ali Khamenei, the leader of the Islamic Republic, announced that he had banned the import of American and British vaccines. In the meantime, a large number of countries have succeeded in relatively controlling the spread of the coronavirus in their countries by using various vaccines, but Iran is still facing new waves of widespread outbreaks of the coronavirus.

Official statistics from the Ministry of Health on Thursday indicate that 20,313 new patients were identified, of which 2,287 were hospitalized, bringing the total number of coronavirus patients in Iran to 3,623,840.

Accordingly, 226 people have lost their lives in the past 24 hours, bringing the number of coronavirus deaths in Iran to 88,063.

This statistic is always questionable, and the Iranian Medical System Organization has estimated the actual number of coronavirus victims in Iran to be 3 to 4 times the official figure announced by the Ministry of Health.

According to the Ministry of Health, so far 7,339,804 people have received the first dose of the coronavirus vaccine and 2,334,317 people have received the second dose, bringing the total number of vaccines administered in the country to 9,674,121 doses.

Meanwhile, Mohammad Hassan Ghosian Moghadam, Secretary General of the Iranian Red Crescent Society, announced the arrival of the eighth shipment of vaccines prepared by the Red Crescent Society, and said that on Thursday, July 21, the eighth shipment of vaccines prepared by the Red Crescent Society was provided to the Ministry of Health for rapid distribution.

According to the Secretary General of the Iranian Red Crescent Society, at this stage, 1,130,400 doses of vaccine were imported into the country, and with the arrival of this shipment, a total of 9,304,800 doses of vaccine have been imported into the country by the Iranian Red Crescent Society.

At the same time, the head of the Medical Education Assessment Center of the Ministry of Health announced the absence of more than 40 percent of candidates for the master's degree exam in medical sciences on the first day of the exam, saying that 16,058 candidates registered on the first day of the exam, of which 40 percent were absent from the exam session.

Saeed Hashemi had announced a day earlier that 435 candidates for the master's degree exam in medical sciences had been infected with the coronavirus.

The Master's Degree Exam for the Department of Medicine for 2021 will be held starting today, Thursday, July 31, and will continue until Friday, August 1, 2021.

According to the latest color grading of the country's coronavirus situation, 232 cities are in red, 117 cities are in orange, and 99 counties are in yellow.

Source: Radio Farda