Parsa Namaki, the son of Iran Health Minister Saeed Namaki, receives the Sputnik V Coronavirus vaccine, Tehran, Iran February 9, 2021 (Majid Asgaripour/WANA)

Iran has begun its Coronavirus vaccination campaign, using Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine.

Health Minister Saeed Namaki announced at a televised ceremony at Tehran’s Imam Khomeini Hospital on Tuesday, “The first person to receive the Russian Sputnik vaccine is my own child.”

Priority is being given to medical personnel, the elderly, disabled, and veterans.

President Hassan Rouhani announced the campaign, coinciding with the celebrations for the 1979 Islamic Revolution, on Saturday. He pledged a “significant” number of vaccinations by the start of the Iranian New Year on March 20.

Rouhani declared at the Tehran ceremony, “We begin our national vaccination against the Covid-19 virus…[in] memory of the martyrdom of health workers.”

The first delivery of Sputnik V vaccines was flown from Moscow to Tehran on February 4. Further cargoes are expected on February 18 and February 28.

Iran has purchased 2 million doses. In-fighting over use of the vaccine ebbed after peer-reviewed, late-stage trial results, published in The Lancet medical journal, showed an efficacy rate of 91.6% against the original strain of Coronavirus.

Iran had arranged to purchase vaccines from Pfizer/BioNTech and Oxford/AstraZeneca, but these were blocked by the Supreme Leader’s command not to take any supplies from the US, UK, or France.

Iran is also trying to develop local vaccines, which began human trials in late 2020.

The Islamic Republic’s official death toll is 58,536. There are almost 1.5 million confirmed cases.