TEHRAN, April 08 (MNA) – Iran’s Vice-President for Science and Technology Sorena Sattari said on Wed.

that the country is conducting hundreds of research projects to detect the nature of the novel coronavirus, also known as COVID-19.More than 2,000 clinical tests have been carried out in the country in this regard, Sattari stressed.

So far, several research projects have been defined for the discovery of nature of COVID-19, all of which are underway, he said, adding, “over 2,000 clinical tests have been conducted within the framework of 76 projects to discover the treatment protocols, effective drugs, cell therapy methods, use of blood plasma of the recovered patients and herbal plants affecting the disease.” These researches have produced significant results which have led to the development of knowledge to combat the disease, elimination of drugs which have no effect on the trend of disease and also development of three effective treatment protocols, he emphasized.

He pointed out that these researches have been carried out in cooperation with many scientists, researchers employed in research centers, universities and knowledge-based companies.

To diagnose the disease, he said, “fortunately, two types of test kits with two different methods have been mass-produced in the country, one is based on the saliva while the other is based on the blood test.” Elsewhere in his remarks, the vice president said, “artificial intelligence systems have been used to diagnose the disease and various applications have been developed to predict and trace the spread of the disease.” As advanced and developed countries are facing serious problems in the field of provision of their medical and hospital equipment, knowledge-based companies in Iran have produced all these products and no patient in the country has experienced the shortage of these equipment including ventilator, CT Scan, ICU rooms, oxygen maker, etc., Vice-President for Science and Technology Sattari added.

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