Namaki on Sunday said in the inauguration ceremony of 64 health projects in South Khorasan province that the US is telling a blatant lie when it says Washington is not sanctioning Iran's medicine and medical sectors.
Describing the US as a compulsive liar, he stressed that despite sanctions, Iran faces no shortage of medicine.
He added that since the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak in Iran, the National Committee to Manage COVID-19 was established in Iran under the chairmanship of President Hassan Rouhani, with full support of the Supreme Leader, to utilize all capacities at national level, to monitor the disease, and to endorse strict public health measures to curb the disease.
Referring to the infection rate increase, the Iranian Health Minister noted that there are no hospital-bed shortages though this does not mean that people are allowed to ignore the protocols.
He also said that the COVID-19 pandemic swept the world severely, providing many lessons to be learned nationally, regionally and globally, which demonstrated unpreparedness of the global community to deal with a pandemic.
The minister also stressed that global preparedness and emergency response must be at the forefront of the agenda of governments and international agencies for decades to come.
On Dec 4, 2020, too, Iran's Minister of Health and Medical Education in a statement delivered to the online session of the High-level Special Session of the United Nations General Assembly, Response to COVID-19 Pandemic, in New York, said that unilateral sanctions have been targeting Iran's medicine and medical equipment needed by the nation.
In the statement, he appreciated "the United Nations efforts to hold High-Level Special Session in response to COVID-19 Pandemic to share experience and to demonstrate the utmost high-level commitment to curb the disease which strongly hit the globe during the last 11 months."
Namaki added: "The unilateral coercive measures imposed by the Governemnt of United States have negatively affected the process of combating the Pandemic in my country. Unilateral illegal measures, hampers easy access of the people to basic medical items and requirements and thus endangers health of the Iranian citizens. Medicines supply and health commodities have been targeted through tight restrictions of foreign exchange resources even for these humanitarian issues."