Page 10 - IRANRptAug21

Tehran enters six-day holiday lockdown with cars banned from crossing into other provinces
“Even though they are vaccinated, my co-workers are all becoming sick due to long bouts of sleeplessness and stress,” he said, also warning that the country’s health system could collapse.
Another batch of Russia’s Sputnik-V coronavirus vaccine, a shipment of around 100,000 doses, arrived in Tehran on July 31, Tasnim news agency reported.
In addition to Sputnik V, Iran uses the Chinese Sinopharm, the Indian Bharat Biotech, the British-Swedish AstraZeneca and the Iranian COV Iran Barakat vaccines against coronavirus.
Tehran and several other cities across Iran have been told to close non-essential businesses and services in a bid to deal with the latest so-called fifth wave of coronavirus (COVID-19), a government spokesman said on July 19.
Businesses such as cafes and restaurants as well as shopping centres including the Tehran Grand Bazaar have been ordered to pull the shutters down for at least two weeks as the numbers of coronavirus infections continues to jump following the discovery of the Delta variant originally discovered in India.
The massive upswing in infections is partly due to the poor rollout of vaccines in the country and large increase in black market sales forcing many to have to go without any protection from the virus.
2.5 “Vaccine tourists” from Iran to Armenia explodes
Long tailbacks at border
Many of Iran’s “vaccine tourists” have started sleeping on the streets of Yerevan in response to a tightened law that specifies that they must spend at least 10 days in Armenia before becoming eligible for a jab against coronavirus.
Photos posted on social media show how Iranians have turned to sleeping rough in the Armenian capital, with the amended ruling causing their funds to dry up ahead of the opportunity to get inoculated.
Armenia offers free jabs to anyone arriving in the country. The offer has been snapped up by many Iranians who are struggling to get vaccinated back home, where they face month-long queues. Such was the big response to the free vaccines for foreign tourists initiative, that the Armenian government was forced to introduce deterrents that will be enough to keep away some foreigners in search of a faster route to vaccination.
At the Meghri/Norduz checkpoint on the Armenian/Iranian border, traffic jams caused by “vaccine tourists” from Iran have resulted in long tailbacks, Panorama.am reported.
Armenian Customs said that from June 21 to July 17, around 14,000 Iranians travelled into Armenia, with 10,000 arriving via the land border crossing. During the same period, 35 flights from Imam Khomeini Airport in Tehran brought 3,911 passengers to Armenia.
Tejarat newspaper reported on July 4 that taxi drivers were charging Iranians up to Iranian rial (IRR) 30mn ($122) for round “vaccine” trips from Tehran to the Armenian border, while tour agencies were pushing ahead with increasing daily flights to Yerevan and all bus tours from Iran to Armenia were sold out.
10 IRAN Country Report August 2021 www.intellinews.com