Tehran, IRNA – Supreme Leader of Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said on Wednesday that the coronavirus spread was the first and foremost issue of the country.

In a televised message delivered today, the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, pointed to the recent wave of Coronavirus saying that this issue is the first and foremost issue of the country.

Placing great emphasis on the fulfilment of duties and the implementation of decisions regarding the pandemic, Imam Khamenei offered important pieces of advice to officials and the people.

He said that "COVID-19 is the country’s number one problem today. This is not just in Iran, but almost everywhere in the world. Coronavirus has an outbreak and then it passes on. The number of infected people and the fatalities are truly tragic. It breaks the heart of any human."

"Today, the other issue involving COVID-19 pandemic is the exhaustion of the health workers. In this hot summer, facing such problems day and night brings pressure on them, physically and emotionally. Our thanks don’t really matter. The true thanks come from God Who is watching their efforts," the Supreme Leader added.

He underscored that the officials’ first duty is to be able to provide free Covid-19 diagnostic testing on a widespread basis for everyone. Both insurance companies and the administration must help with this.

In the first months of the Corona outbreak, the Army and the IRGC took very important measures and the Mobilized Forces (Basij) had a strong presence. Now too, they must work as hard as they can to address this issue and to help the people, he underlined.

God willing, with our dear people observing the guidelines, the pandemic will be less within 2 to 3 months. And God willing, vaccines will be abundantly available in a few months. By God’s grace, problems will decrease or be resolved, he further noted.

The administration’s second duty concerns Covid vaccine. Fortunately, after production of the Iranian vaccine, some countries’ not carrying out their promise to sell vaccines to us has lessened. But, increased efforts should be made to both import and to produce vaccines internally, he added.

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