Iran starts final clinical trial of domestic vax

Tehran, March 16 : Iran has kicked off the final stage of the clinical trial of its domestic Covid-19 vaccine as two volunteers were inoculated, semi-official Mehr news agency reported.

"Phase 1 was successfully completed with 56 volunteers, and today phases 2 and 3 of the clinical trial began," director of the clinical trial centre at Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS) Hamed Hosseini said on Monday.

The receivers of the COV-Iran Barekat vaccine were two lecturers at TUMS.

Iran has so far reported a total of 1,754,933 coronavirus cases and 61,330 deaths.

At least 1,499,301 Covid-19 patients have recovered, but 3,839 others remain in critical condition, according to official figures.