Iran Develops Mass Vaccination Plan Against COVID-19, Waits For Its Own Vaccine - Rouhani

TEHRAN (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 09th January, 2021) Iran has developed a four-phased strategy of the nationwide vaccination against COVID-19, with frontline medical workers and disabled people being among the first to get a domestic vaccine when it would be produced, President Hassan Rouhani said on Saturday.

"When we have the vaccine, around 1.3 million people � frontline health workers and disabled persons � will be involved in the first phase of the vaccination," Rouhani told a meeting of the national coronavirus task force.

The second group will include about 12 million individuals � people with co-existing health problems and those aged over 65, according to the force's spokesman, Alireza Raisi.

A further 19 million people will be involved in the third stage of the vaccination process, Rouhani added. The fourth phase is set to be applied for the rest of the population.

According to media reports, Rouhani also said that his administration would not permit foreign vaccines against COVID-19 from being tested on Iranians.

Iran is currently working on development of COVID-19 vaccines. As health ministry spokesperson Kianush Jahanpur told Sputnik, the country expects the first vaccine to be ready by the spring, and another two-three by the summer.

Iran also considers an option to purchase vaccines manufactured by other countries, except for the UK and US-made vaccines as they were banned by the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on Friday. The Iranian Ministry of Health earlier expressed its interest in Russian COVID-19 vaccines, including Sputnik V. On January 3, a source from the Iranian embassy in Moscow told Sputnik that deputy health ministers from both Iran and Russia would soon meet to discuss cooperation on a COVID-19 vaccine.