Health and Hygiene

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 …

RFL/RE – Following an announcement that Tehran had won approval from the United States to use foreign-currency reserves to buy coronavirus vaccines, Iran’s president has claimed that Washington is now demanding that such a transaction go through a U.S. bank. President Hassan Rohani told a meeting of the government’s coronavirus-response team on December 26 that Iran sought to transfer money …

Iran Human Rights (IHR) – In a recent interview, Ali Akbar Salehi, the current head of the Atomic Energy Organisation and former Foreign Minister of Iran states that it is better for the nuclear issue to be the challenge between Iran and the West, and not issues like human rights.  Ali Akbar Salehi discussed the challenges between Iran and the …

Iranwire.com – The question of acquiring a coronavirus vaccine continued to dominate the news on Wednesday, December 23. Iranian officials continued to make promises without mentioning any specifics, and the hashtag #Buy_the_Vaccine continues to trend on social media. “Despite all the pressures and difficulties, we will buy the vaccine from the best and most trustworthy sources in the world,” said Health Minister …

RFL/RE – Iran has won approval from the United States to use foreign currency reserves it holds abroad to buy coronavirus vaccines despite U.S. sanctions on Iranian banks, the central bank chief said on December 24.Abdolnaser Hemmati said the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control approved the transfer to a Swiss bank.Hemmati said Iran would pay around $244 …

RFL/RE – Amid the launch of mass COVID-19 vaccination drives in the West, there’s growing concern among Iranians that they could be left behind. They fear U.S. sanctions and what some regard as the Iranian clerical establishment’s failure to prioritize the well-being of its citizens. Iranians, including health workers, have taken to social media to call on their leaders to …