Health Minister: Iran to Start Vaccination of School Students in 2 Weeks

"Vaccination of people over 18 is underway," Einollahi said while reiterating that vaccination of school students will start soon.

"Vaccination varies in different parts of the country; in big cities, it is usually for over 40-year-old people, and in some of our border areas is for 13-year-old and over," he added.

He pointed out that about 13 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine are needed to vaccinate people under 18.

"Given the imports and domestically produced vaccines, people should not worry about being vaccinated because vaccination would go on non-stop," the health minister said.

"There are currently 5 domestically produced vaccines with excellent quality such as the Fakhra vaccine," he added.

Iranian President Seyed Ebrahim Rayeesi announced on Thursday that purchase of 50mln doses of coronavirus vaccine has been secured so far, stressing the need for speeding up efforts to produce, import and inject more jabs.

Rayeesi made the remarks, addressing a meeting with the heads of specialized committees of the national coronavirus campaign headquarters in Tehran.

He said that the country has taken four transitional steps in the fight against the new surge of the coronavirus spread, noting that they include supporting domestic COVID-19 vaccines, increasing foreign vaccine imports, accelerating vaccination and implementing an upgraded iteration of 'Martyr Soleimani' plan.

Rayeesi said that domestic COVID-19 vaccines Fakhra and Razi are in the production stage and Barekat vaccine production line was expanded by speeding up Health Ministry licensing processes.

He also explained that affording and importing foreign vaccines have also been accelerated so that the purchase of 50 million doses has been secured.

The country also saw an increase in general vaccination speed, as 1.1 million doses were administered last Wednesday, according to the President who also vowed to even increase vaccination speed to 2 million doses a day.

Martyr Soleimani plan to fight the coronavirus spread was suspended for some time and President Rayeesi ordered the resumption of the plan as it was effective in cooling down the surge in the pandemic last year.

He praised the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), Basij forces and the Red Crescent Society for their efforts to revive Martyr Soleimani plan.