FNA - Iranian First Vice-President Eshaq Jahangiri said on Monday that the selfless job of Iranian medical staff to treat COVID-19 patients, through putting their own health at stake, will never be erased from the nation’s mind.

“The powerful Iranian medical community did a great job in battling coronavirus,” Jahangiri said adding that the great dimensions of the disease have impacted the whole world.

Meanwhile, an 85-year-old woman from North of Iran overcame coronavirus after eight days of resistance just to add to the list of the elderly who have survived the disease in the country.

Specialist of infectious and tropical diseases at Babol University of Medical Sciences Sima Mohseni Ahangar said the 85-year-old woman who had been hospitalized eight days ago with severe lung inflammation and was diagnosed positively with regard to COVID19 infection was discharged from hospital.

Meantime, Head of the Iranian Red Crescent Society Karim Hemmati announced that his colleagues have screened over 21mln of people in vehicles going through the entrances and exits of different cities and towns in the past few weeks, identifying 14,000 patients suspected of infection to coronavirus.

“Over 21mln people have been screened. The passengers of over 6.7mln vehicles have been tested on coronavirus infection and 14,000 people suspected of infection have been sent to the medical teams,” Hemmati said, addressing a ceremony to introduce him as the new head of the Red Crescent Society, on Monday.

Elsewhere, he said that the Red Crescent Society is supplying 100,000 packages of foodstuff and other needed commodities to 2mln people who have lost their jobs, calling for people’s charity aid to help more people.

Also, Iranian scientists at Royan institute are studying the effects of mesenchymal cells on treating patients infected with coronavirus.

“In this treatment method, the mesenchymal cells in cord blood cells or bone marrow cells are used,” Head of Royan Institute’s Academic Jihad Abdolhossein Shahverdi told FNA on Monday.

He said that mesenchymal cells had earlier been used in treatment of certain incurable diseases, including those related to cartilage bone, with good results, expressing the hope that these cells can prove effective in healing coronavirus patients.

Shahverdi said that the ethics license has been issued for testing the method on coronavirus patients, voicing hope that the clinical tests would be successful.

Furthermore, researchers of Iran's Amirkabir University of Technology designed and manufactured a device to monitor people's health and vital signs.

The device built by the Iranian researchers is dubbed as the ‘PO-MED 19’, a finger pulse oximeter device.

The device receives data from a person's finger and provides the doctor or the user with useful information about heart rate and oxygen saturation percentage of blood, as well as various interpretations of a person's health.

Iranian researchers at Tehran University also declared that they have produced a special ventilator system for coronavirus patients which can easily be manufactured by specialists across the world.

The system was redesigned and manufactured by the University of Tehran researchers, including Hadi Moradi and Seyed Kamaleddin Setarehdan, in cooperation with Morteza Behzad Nasab from Iran Polymer and Petrochemical Institute as well as a team from MIT University supervised by professor Slocum.

The easy production of the ventilator system is among its advantages. Also, its design has been provided to everyone in the world as open source so that any specialist can develop and prepare it for local use.

Also, Deputy Head of Razi Medical Institute Ali Ameghi Roudsari said that the institute has set up breeding system of specific-pathogen-free (SPF) mice.

“To improve its products quality, the institute is having talks with World Health Organization and International Council for Laboratory Animal Sciences (ICLAS),” Ali Ameghi Roudsari said.

“Razi Institute will have the permission of international bodies to export laboratory animals in future,” he noted.

Specific-pathogen-free (SPF) is a term used for laboratory animals that are guaranteed free of particular pathogens. Use of SPF animals ensures that specified diseases do not interfere with an experiment. For example, absence of respiratory pathogens such as influenza is desirable when researching a drug's effect on lung function.

Meantime, Secretary of Stem Cells Development Headquarters of Vice Presidency for Science and Technology Amir Ali Hamidieh announced on Monday that the country’s researchers are working on coronavirus vaccine by using the intracellular manipulation method.

“A number of researchers are using intracellular manipulation method to produce coronavirus vaccine,” Hamidieh said.

He described production of the coronavirus vaccine as a time-consuming and complicated process, saying that research on the vaccine has started in Iran.

Lawmaker Hojjatoleslam Seyyed Mohammad Bagher Ebadi said that “Leap in Production” is the best way to counter economic plummet amid COVID-19 outbreak.

“The government should promote economic and political ties with Eurasian and neighboring countries,” he said and added, “There is a great capacity in the region and Iran should benefit from these capacities to confront US sanctions.”

He described US medical sanctions imposed on Iran as ‘unjust and against the human rights’ adding, “Despite these sanctions, Islamic Republic of Iran has high capacities and potentials and can overcome challenges.”

Iranian Health Ministry Spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour announced on Monday that 1,617 new cases of coronavirus infection have been identified in the country, adding that the virus has killed 4,585 people so far.

“1,617 more patients infected with COVID-19 virus have been identified in the country since yesterday based on confirmed diagnosis criteria,” Jahanpour said.

He said that the total number of coronavirus patients in Iran has increased to 73,303, adding that 4,585 people have lost their lives due to infection to the virus, including 111 in the past 24 hours.

Jahanpour, meantime, said that 45,983 infected people have been treated and dismissed from hospital, adding that the recovery of patients has sped up in Iran.

He noted that 3,877 patients infected with COVID-19 virus are in critical conditions.

Iranian Health Minister Saeed Namaki stressed on April 7 effective measures to control coronavirus epidemic, expressing the hope that the disease would be controlled in Iran by late May.

“At present, the country is in the phase of disease management and we should not imagine that we have reached the harness and control phase. Today is the time for full-fledged combat against the virus. God willing, we will control coronavirus by late May. The virus should be controlled in the minimum possible time,” Namaki said, addressing the Iranian legislators in an open session of the parliament in Tehran.

He noted that at least 30% to 50% of hospital beds are still vacant across Iran and nearly 15,000 beds are ready to keep the patients who are recovering from coronavirus disease.

“We have now moved down to tank 6th in terms of deaths,” Namaki said, adding that the country’s situation in treatment of patients will improve in the next few days.

The coronavirus COVID-19 is affecting approximately all countries and territories around the world. The virus was first reported in the central Chinese city of Wuhan late last year. It has so far killed more than 114,000 people and infected over 1.8 million others globally.

The Iranian foreign ministry declared that despite Washington’s claims of cooperation to transfer drugs to Iran via the new Swiss-launched payment mechanism, the US is troubling the process amid the coronavirus outbreak in the country.

Although US claims that medicines and medical equipment are not under sanctions, they have practically blocked the transfer of Iran’s financial resources in other countries into the Swiss Humanitarian Trade Arrangement (SHTA), Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Seyed Abbas Mousavi said.

As the death toll from the virus surges, Iran intensifies its preventive safety measures. Closures of schools and most universities have been extended until late April.

The government also imposed travel restrictions, specially on Iran’s North, which is among the red zones. The country has also adopted strict digital health control procedures at airports to spot possible infections.

Namaki announced last month that a new national mobilization plan would be implemented across the country to fight against the coronavirus epidemic and more effectively treat patients.

Namaki said that the plan will include all the 17,000 health centers and the 9,000 medical and clinical centers in all cities, suburban areas and villages.

He added that the plan will include home quarantine, noting that infected people will receive the necessary medicines and advice, but they are asked to stay at home.

Namaki said that people with a more serious condition will stay at the hospitals, adding that the public places will be disinfected, the entries of infected towns and cities will be controlled to diagnose and quarantine the infected cases.

He added that the necessary equipment and facilities have been provided, expressing the hope that the epidemic would be curbed.

According to the latest statistics of Health Ministry, the number of medical laboratories to test coronavirus infection has reached over 90 across the country.

The World Health Organization (WHO) says Iran's response to the virus has so far been up to the mark. Still, it says the US sanctions are a big challenge, and Washington would be complicit in the rising death toll in Iran if it would not remove its sanctions.

The World Health Organization has considered priorities in combating coronavirus and Islamic Republic of Iran obeys and follows up priorities as defined by WHO.

The WHO is dispatching separate delegations to all countries.