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On August 11, Our Country announced that it had registered a vaccine against COVID-19, with production planned for September and first vaccinations in October. Iran, the Middle East country most affected by the pandemic, responded to the news by saying that it is currently testing “three to four vaccines” in humans to protect against SARS-CoV-2.
Iran: We are testing several COVID-19 vaccines in humans
Iranian Health Minister Saeed Namaki said the two Iranian companies “have made some progress in the development of three to four vaccines, and these vaccines have passed animal testing and entered human trials,” said the Fars News Agency, an Iranian news agency.
Minister Namaki did not explain whether the tests were trials of the second phase – carried out on a small number of people, or whether they had already covered the third phase, carried out on hundreds or thousands of participants. He revealed, however, that Iran has made preparations to purchase a potential vaccine from countries that may develop it before Iran.
- A world wary of Our Country’s coronavirus vaccine. “It’s Pandora’s Box”
Last month, Saeed Namaki said that “at least five groups of highly skilled teams” are working in Iran to develop a vaccine against the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, The Times of Israel reports, citing information from Fars.
Iran – Middle East country most affected by the pandemic. Statistics [as of August 13]
In Iran, the number of new infections and COVID-19 deaths has been rising since most of the restrictions designed to limit the spread of the virus were lifted in Iran in mid-April, notes Reuters. On August 12, 2 new cases were reported, and 510 people died.
Source: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/iran/
The worst day so far since the beginning of the epidemic in terms of the daily increase in infections was June 4 – 3 people fell ill then. In terms of the number of deaths, the record was 574 July – 28 people died then.
Source: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/iran/
Since the beginning of the epidemic in Iran, 333 infections have been reported, 699 patients have died, and 18 patients have been considered cured.
As Tracking R reports, in Iran the virus reproduction rate (R coefficient) as of August 3 (latest data) was 1,03 in this country.
Let us remind you that the R factor (virus reproduction rate) shows the contagiousness of the coronavirus, i.e. how many people can be infected by one patient with COVID-19 infection. If the rate is more than 1 (i.e. one patient infects more than one person), it can be said that the epidemic is still developing. When the R-factor is below 1, fewer and fewer people become infected from each other and the epidemic is extinguished.
However, there are suspicions that the actual death toll in Iran is higher. In early August, the BBC published a medical report based on data provided by an anonymous Iranian source. It shows that the number of victims of the epidemic in Iran is almost three times greater than the government statistics give. Earlier, many experts considered government data on the epidemic to be understated.
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