Foreign tourists will be requested to visit Iran in limited and controlled numbers while abiding by new health protocols, Deputy Head of Iran's Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization, Vali Teymouri, said on Tuesday.
The outlines of the new plan on the arrival of foreign tourists have been discussed and approved in the security committee of the National Task Force to Combat COVID-19, Teymouri told official IRNA news agency.
According to the new directive, issued by the deputy minister of health for the incoming tourists, all the passengers arriving in Iran by air are required to hold a valid health certificate, issued by the health authorities of the country of departure, said Teymouri.
The health certificate must contain a COVID-19 negative test result performed by an approved center of the departure country, carried out within 96 hours before entry into Iran.
Meanwhile, Head of the Executive Office of Imam Khomeini Directives, Mohammad Mokhber, said on Tuesday that the first Iran-made COVID-19 vaccine COV-Iran Barekat, which is in the phase of human trial, is predicted to be available by late April.
Mokhber expressed his hope that Iran will produce some 12 to 14 million doses a month by early May, 2021.
Iran's President Hassan Rouhani said Tuesday that vaccination against the COVID-19 in Iran will hopefully begin in the coming weeks, Press TV reported.
As soon as vaccination starts in Iran, "the situation will definitely become better," Rouhani said.
Iran has purchased 16.8 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines from COVAX, a WHO-backed global scheme for distributing the COVID-19 vaccines. Besides, the first batch of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine is expected to arrive in Iran later this week.
On Tuesday, Iran's health ministry reported 6,820 daily COVID-19 cases, raising the total nationwide infections to 1,431,416.
The pandemic has so far claimed 58,110 lives in Iran, up by 72 in the past 24 hours, said Sima Sadat Lari, the spokeswoman for Iranian Ministry of Health and Medical Education, during her daily briefing.
A total of 1,223,197 people have recovered from the disease and been discharged from hospitals, while 3,865 remain in intensive care units, she added.
Iran announced its first cases of COVID-19 on Feb. 19, 2020.