Health Minister's Son is First in Line as Iran Begins Limited Covid Vaccinations

On the morning of Tuesday, February 9, Iran started coronavirus vaccinations with the inoculation of frontline medical personnel and health workers in 635 state and private clinics and hospitals across the country.

The first to be vaccinated, however, was not a health professional at all but Parsa Namaki, the son of Health Minister Saeed Namaki, who declared as justification: “My son was vaccinated to show that our blood is not redder than others’.”

The move was praised by President Hassan Rouhani, who for his part said: “I told my colleagues that I was ready to be among the first to be vaccinated.” He also railed against “foreign media and foreigners” for criticizing the Islamic Republic because it had not started vaccinations earlier.

Dr. Ghasem Jan-Babaei, a deputy health minister, said that the first people to receive the jab would be 34,000 Iranian medical personnel who work in ICUs. Of these, around 22,000 work in government hospitals and the rest are based at private facilities.

The first shipment from Russia includes just 20,000 doses: enough to inoculate 10,000 people out of a population of more than 80 million. Most of those working in ICUs will therefore have to wait for further shipments to arrive, as will other medical workers and vulnerable members of the general population.

According to Dr. Mohammad Reza Shanehsaz, the head of Iran’s Food and Drug Administration, two further shipments are due to arrive on February 18 and February 28. He added that he is hopeful that, in cooperation with Russia, Iran will be able to start coproducing Sputnik V inside the country in two months. Iran is also planning to import some 17 million doses of vaccine through the World Health Organization’s Covax facility, and millions more from third parties.

Meanwhile, the official daily death toll from Covid-19 in Iran has increased again. The official death toll now stands at 58.625, though the true figure is thought to be several times higher than this due to a combination of logistical problems and deliberate under-reporting.

Iran’s Latest Coronavirus Statistics

In her daily briefing for February 9, Health Ministry spokeswoman Dr. Sima Sadat Lari announced the official coronavirus statistics for the past 24 hours:

Provinces Round-up

According to the latest figures announced by the Ministry of Health, 36 cities in Iran currently are in an orange state of alert, 178 cities are on yellow alert and 234 are blue.

In Mazandaran, on the first day of vaccinations in Iran, 240 health workers in ICUs across the province received their first shots. Mazandaran’s share of the first shipment of the Russian coronavirus vaccine was just 480 doses, and each of these people must be inoculated twice.

Lorestan’s share of the first shipment was also 480 doses and 240 ICU staff were also vaccinated here on Tuesday. According to Dr. Maryam Koushaki, vice president of Lorestan University of Medical Sciences, they will receive their second shot in three weeks’ time. As of now, she said, no-one else is authorized to receive the vaccine. Meanwhile, she added that 108 new cases of Covid-19 were identified in Lorestan in the past 24 hours, meaning that, as of now, more than 64,000 people in this province are known to have been infected with coronavirus while the official number of fatalities now stands at 1,326.

In Khuzestan, coronavirus vaccination started with the inoculation of Dr. Ghasem Jalali, a specialist in pulmonary diseases. No further information was published about other recipients of the vaccine or the number of doses that this province received. Since January 10 the number of new Covid-19 infections in Khuzestan has been rising rapidly and Dr. Farhad Abolnejadian, president of Ahvaz Jondishapur University of Medical Sciences, warned that if this trend continues for the next few days, Ahvaz, the provincial capital, would be back in an “orange” state of alert and extensive shutdowns would have to be reimposed.

Vaccinations in Isfahan started with the inoculation of ICU workers at Isa bin Maryam Hospital. No further information was given about Isfahan’s share of the vaccine. The province of Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad, meanwhile, received just 100 doses of vaccine – enough to inoculate 50 frontline medical staff across three hospitals.

In Gilan some 130 members of the province’s medical staff were vaccinated on the Tuesday. Dr. Abtin Heydarzadeh, vice president of Gilan University of Medical Sciences, said his university hospitals are scheduled to receive a new shipment of the vaccine every week from now.

In Alborz five more confirmed Covid-19 patients died on Tuesday, bringing the official death toll in the province to 2,698, reported Dr. Mohammad Fathi, president of Alborz University of Medical Sciences. With the admission to hospital of 39 new Covid-19 patients, the current number of hospitalizations in Alborz now stands at 283. Since the pandemic started, he added, 30,802 patients have been hospitalized in the province and 27,817 have been safely discharged.

In Qazvin, another 34 Covid-19 were hospitalized in 24 hours and currently 216 coronavirus patients are receiving hospital care, reported Qazvin University of Medical Sciences. With one more death during the same time period, the official coronavirus death toll in the province now stands at 1,282. Also in Qazvin, 300 frontline medical personnel were vaccinated on Tuesday.