Page 11 - IRANRptAug21

Vaccine tourism “accidental”
Armenia has approved three vaccines against COVID-19, namely Russia’s Sputnik V, China’s CoronaVac and AstraZeneca’s vaccine. It initially offered all of them free to foreign visitors. As of July 15, however, foreigners can only be inoculated in Armenia with the AstraZeneca vaccine.
“We didn’t have any special plans to develop vaccine tourism, it happened accidentally,” Alfred Kocharyan, deputy head of the Armenian Tourism Committee, told Reuters, adding that people were also coming from India to get free shots.
“But demand for vaccines has created an opportunity for our travel agencies which I encourage them to take.”
Armenia had administered at least 260,813 doses of Covid vaccines by July 10, according to the Armenian authorities.
According to The Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), around 2.7% of Iran’s population have received both doses of an anti-coronavirus vaccine.
2.6 Iranian MPs pull controversial “national internet” bill
A controversial parliamentary member bill that if passed would restrict access to the worldwide web and criminalise virtual private networks (VPNs) has been pulled by the Iranian parliament, Hamshahri newspaper reported on July 26.
The bill is entitled "Protecting internet users' rights and managing messaging apps" but analysts have said the title is a misnomer as the current text of the bill would criminalise the use of banned apps such as Telegram Messenger.
The drafted legislation calls for jail terms of between three and six months for those who violate certain of its demands; however, nearly all top politicians and business people in Iran use VPNs to access banned websites and applications like Telegram and Twitter.
As part of the now-pulled bill, repeat offenders could face longer jail terms and fines, as well as receive lashes and be "deprived of their civic rights" for up to five years.
Minister of Information and Communications Technology Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi has denounced the bill in letters to parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and President-elect Ebrahim Raisi.
The outgoing minister said the bill would limit users’ free access to information, weaken the government’s role in cyberspace decision-making and make his ministry practically obsolete.
2.7 Polls & Sociology
Analysis ‘shows Iran among countries facing severe oxygen shortages amid pandemic’
Dozens of countries including Iran are reportedly facing severe oxygen shortages because of surging COVID-19 cases, with the “total collapse” of health systems a feared prospect.
The Bureau of Investigative Journalism analysed data provided by the Every Breath Counts Coalition, the NGO Path and the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) to ascertain the nations that are most exposed to running out of oxygen. It also studied data on global vaccination rates.
11 IRAN Country Report August 2021 www.intellinews.com