Health and Hygiene

RFL/RE – Iran is being criticized by international rights groups for putting politics above its own people after Tehran banned imports of British and U.S. COVID-19 vaccines. The criticism comes after Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on January 8 that imports of U.S. and British vaccines into Iran were “forbidden.” U.S. firms Pfizer and Moderna, as well as …

RFL/RE – Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has announced a ban on imports of U.S. and British coronavirus vaccines, saying he does not “trust” the two countries. “Imports of U.S. and British vaccines into the country are forbidden. I have told this to officials and I’m saying it publicly now,” Khamenei, who has the last say on all matters …

aljazeera.com -The announcement came the day Iran’s health ministry reported the country, the hardest hit by the coronavirus in the Middle East, had recorded its lowest daily death toll in nearly seven months. “Unfortunately, we found the first case of the mutated British COVID-19 from a dear compatriot who had returned from England … and who was admitted to one …

Iranwire.com – A new report by the Center for Strategic Studies, the research arm of the Iranian president’s office, has castigated Iran’s official response to the threat of coronavirus. The government of the Islamic Republic, it says, acted inefficiently and unsuccessfully in the face of the threat posed by Covid-19. Pointing out that Iran is one of the worst-hit countries …

Iranwire.com – Every Saturday, the National Coronavirus Taskforce reports the level of coronavirus alert in Iranian cities. During the last week in December, no city in Iran was in a red state of alert, but this week the level of alert in four cities in the northern province of Mazandaran reverted to red, raising concerns that, at least in parts …

Iran-HRM – Inmate dies in Urmia Prison due to Coronavirus. Akbar Mostafa died on Sun. Dec. 27 in the dispensary of the Central Prison of Urmia from COVID-19 in the absence of necessary and urgent medical care. Inmates in the Central Prison of Urmia are deprived of the minimum medical and health resources. With the advent of winter, they are …

Al-Arabia – Iran launched Tuesday the first phase of a clinical trial of a vaccine developed in the Islamic Republic, the region’s country hardest hit by the pandemic, state television reported. “The first vaccine against the coronavirus, developed by Iranian researchers, has been unveiled by injecting three people,” the public broadcaster said. The novel coronavirus has killed nearly 55,000 out …

RFL/RE – The head of Iran’s Red Crescent Society says the country will receive a shipment of coronavirus vaccines developed by Pfizer and BioNTech in three weeks. “According to arrangements made with a group of philanthropists in the U.S., 150,000 doses of [Pfizer] coronavirus vaccines are expected to enter the country,” Red Crescent Director Karim Hemmati told the semi-official Tasnim …

Iran-HRM – Three prisoners have died in Evin Prison in Tehran in the period between December 24 and 28. The three prisoners suffered from the COVID-19 but they had been abandoned by Evin dispensary officials without any medical treatment. On Monday, December 28, Amir Hossein Mottaghian died of COVID-19 in Ward 4 of Evin Prison. He fell down on the …

Al-Monitor – The United States has approved the overseas transfer of funds from an Iranian bank to pay for coronavirus vaccines, the regime’s central bank chief says. Sanctions are technically not supposed to affect medicine, and this will allow Tehran to avoid some of the corollary damage US restrictions on Iran’s financial institutions have caused when it comes to the Islamic Republic’s medical …