Iran, the country hardest hit by the Covid-19 pandemic in the Middle East, is reopening its borders to vaccinated tourists after nearly twenty months of closure, authorities said last week: tourists, ”said Deputy Minister of Tourism and Cultural Heritage of Iran Wali Teimuri.
“Tourists who have received two doses of the Covid vaccine and have a negative PCR test certificate no older than 96 hours can obtain a visa,” Isna news agency reported.
However, this decision does not apply to vaccinated tourists from countries that the World Health Organization considers “high-risk areas.” To enter Iran, a pre-filled form and negative PCR results are also required.
Iran closed its borders in March 2020 to foreign nationals, with rare exceptions, weeks after the country’s first cases of the virus were officially announced. According to the Iranian Ministry of Tourism, the loss of revenue in the tourism sector reached $ 1.2 billion in 2020/2021.
The number of daily cases and deaths associated with the coronavirus is declining slightly in the country, which reported a record number of cases in August. The authorities are struggling to stop the fifth wave of infections.
More than 5.9 million cases have been reported in Iran, including more than 125,000 deaths since the start of the pandemic, according to the latest figures from the Ministry of Health. By their own admission, the Iranian authorities, these statistics greatly underestimate the number of cases and deaths.
So far, in Iran, with a population of 83 million, about 51.1 million have received the first dose of the vaccine and 30.1 million have been fully vaccinated.