WELFARE STATE, REGULATIONS AND

ENVIRONMENT
Fall 2022

Policy Brief

Evolution and Management of Covid-19

IRAN

Ramin Momeni

898367@stud.unive.it

INTRODUCTION:

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On 19 February 2020, Iran reported its first confirmed cases of infections in Qom city.
two people tested positive for SARS-CoV-2. Later that day, the Ministry of Health and Medical
Education (MOHME) stated that both had died.It was reported that the two cases had been triggered
by a merchant with a travel history to Wuhan. On 20 February, three new cases were reported by the
MOHME. On 21 February 2 deaths and 13 new cases were reported; On 22 February, the MOHME
reported 10 more infected cases, bringing the total to 29, and two more deaths, bringing the total to
eight.

Spread of COVID-19 was just begins.The MOHME reported that there were 593 confirmed cases and
43 deaths as of 29 February, 10 days after the first was reported. On 1 March, the MOHME reported
385 new confirmed cases, 11 new deaths, and 52 more people who had recovered, bringing the total
recoveries to 175. On 11 March, the MOHME reported 9,000 new confirmed cases, 354 deaths.

On 12 March, the MOHME reported 1,075 more new confirmed cases and 75 new deaths. They also
reported that 3,276 people had recovered. Iran requested an emergency loan of US$5 billion from the
International Monetary Fund for the first time since the Iranian Revolution to help combat the
outbreak( Previously the IMF had been described by the Islamic Republic as "a tool of U.S.
hegemony"). Sharif University of Technology published a study about possible outcomes of the
pandemic. Three scenarios were announced: if people cooperated immediately, Iran would see
120,000 infections and 12,000 deaths before the outbreak was over; if there was a medium amount
of cooperation, there would be 300,000 cases and 110,000 deaths; and if people did not follow any
guidance, it could collapse Iran's already strained medical system and there would be 4 million cases
and 3.5 million deaths.

The peaks:

Iran has witnessed 6 different peaks of cases. Although they are not equal in amount but at their own
time, they showed a meaningful behavior of society and government. As it declared in the below
some peaks occurred because of national or religious ceremonies. when there was a ceremony in Iran
and people or government eased the restrictions, a peak of infected people appeared less than two
weeks.
The first peak was in 1 April 2020. This day is 13 days after the Iranian New Year Holidays,
Nowruz( which is the country is in the vacation for 1 or 2 weeks).
On 25 March, with new cases surpassing 2,000 for the first time, the government warned of a "Peak"
of infection.On 26 March, the MOHME announced that 2,389 more people had become infected, with
157 new deaths.On 27 March, daily new cases had increased to 2,926 with 144 deaths.
On 2 April, President Rouhani warned that the country might have to fight the pandemic for another
year.On 4 April, Iran announced the highest number of daily deaths so far, with 158 people having
died the previous 24 hours, bringing the total number of deaths to 3,452.

The second Peak showed itself on the 28 November and last for about a week. new cases of 12,400
and death of 376 was reported on the 1th of December 2020. The third peak occurred nearby 20 April
2021 which is about two weeks after Nowruz holiday. The number of new cases per day reached to
21,930 and also the death number was 320 person.

The fourth one which the worst peak of Covid 19 in Iran so far happened around 17 August with the
new cases of 36,160 and 585 death per day on the 29 August. This peaks happens in the middle of
Muharram in Iran which is a religious ceremony lasting about two weeks and government has eased
the restrictions for this religious ceremony.It rised too much blame and protest on the government.
The last two peaks happens Respectively on the first week of February 2022 with 32,800 new cases
and 87 death in the 10 th of Feb and also 8,370 new cases and about 32 death per day in the 28 July of
2022. Also the last peak has occurred within Muharram ceremony again. Below in the figure (1) you
can find the details of this peaks.

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 Figure(1)

The Vaccination:

Iran always seek ways to produce vaccine by itself and at the beginning refused to import any vaccine.
Also on the other hand US sanctions on Iran economy was a reason that make it difficult for
government to buy vaccine because they couldn't pay the money. Any way after few month of
argument government accepted to import vaccine meanwhile trying to build Iranian vaccin too.
In December 2020, Iran agreed to import 16.8 million doses of vaccines through COVAX, the global
collaboration to assure access to vaccines for low/middle income countries, at a cost of around $244
million.
On 18 April 2021, the National Headquarters for Coronavirus control reported the importation of
1,895,000 vaccine doses: 420,000 doses of the Sputnik V vaccine from Russia, 650,000 doses of the
Sinopharm BIBP vaccine from China, 125,000 doses of Covaxin from India, and 700,000 doses of
Oxford–AstraZeneca vaccine from South Korea (via the World Health Organization's COVAX facility).

Up to 19 November 2021, Iran has imported a total of 148,784,308 doses of COVID-19 vaccines,
including:

131,498,898 doses of the Sinopharm BIBP vaccine from China.

7,850,600 doses of the Oxford–AstraZeneca vaccine, including:
1,449,600 doses from China
1,700,800 doses from South Korea
1,452,00 doses from Italy
1,442,000 doses from Netherlands
1,000,000 doses from Austria
1,000,000 doses from Poland
963,000 doses from Russia
150,000 doses from Greece
4,091,200 doses of the Sputnik V vaccine from Russia.
1,125,000 doses of the Bharat Covaxin from India.

Also Multiple COVID-19 vaccines have started to be developed in Iran by private and public
actors.Vaccines that have received emergency use authorization (EUA):
COVIran Barekat: received EUA on 13 June 2021.
Pasteurcovac (or Soberana 02): developed in collaboration with Cuba, received EUA in Iran on 29 June
2021.
FAKHRAVAC: received EUA on 9 September 2021.

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COVAX-19: developed in collaboration with an Australian company,received EUA in Iran on 6 October
2021.
The official vaccination in Iran started from 9th February of 2021 and the first person who received it
was the son of health minister of Iran in the september 2021. Vaccination in Iran speed up on 2021
summer and now 66.64 % of population are fully and about 74% partially vaccinated. See the below
chart from Our World in Data:

Finally the Statistics shows that Iran has 7,547,968 confirmed cases with 144,416 Death by 30
September 2022.

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Refrences:

https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus#explore-the-global-situation

https://covid19.who.int/region/emro/country/ir

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_pandemic_in_Iran

https://www.bbc.com/persian/iran-55991838

https://www.isna.ir/news/1400122721428/%D8%B5%D9%81%D8%B1-%D8%AA%D8%A7-
%D8%B5%D8%AF-%D9%BE%D8%B1%D9%88%DA%98%D9%87-%D9%88%D8%A7%DA
%A9%D8%B3%D9%86-%D8%B3%D8%A7%D8%B2%DB%8C-%D8%A7%DB%8C
%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%86-%D8%B9%D9%84%DB%8C%D9%87-%D9%BE%D8%A7%D9%86%D8%AF
%D9%85%DB%8C-%D9%82%D8%B1%D9%86

https://ir.voanews.com/a/iran-coronavirus-update-april19-pause-on-receiving-vaccines/
6535916.html