�President Hassan Rouhani saidon Tuesday that COVID-19 vaccination will start by the end of the Iranian month of Bahman (mid February).






President Rouhani said that the first stage of vaccination will cover the medical staff and high-risk groups, adding that the situation will be completely different after the vaccination.

He said that currently, million-strong�doses of foreign vaccines have been imported for vaccination,

Rouhani hoped for providing home-made vaccines in the summer.

He said that tourism is an important economic sector in Iran, adding that revitalizing tourism will be helpful for the national economy.

President Rouhani hailed reports of the growing number of tourists visiting Iran over the last few years.

He pointed to opening over 2,200 tourism projects during the incumbent government, saying that some 670 hotels are now under construction.

Earlier, the secretary of the biotechnology development department in Iran�s presidential office Mostafa Qanei said that the necessary doses for inoculation against the coronavirus will be provided through purchase and domestic production and that the public vaccination will be complete by winter 2022.

Iran is to provide around 16 million doses of vaccines through the World Health Organization's COVAX program, 25 million doses through import, and 25 million through domestic production, he added.