Iran’s health minister has written a message to the Supreme Leader of Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Khamenei to congratulate the leader, frontliners and Iranian nation on zero COVID-19 death toll in the face of toughest sanctions during two years of the pandemic infection.

In his message, released on Friday, Bahram Eynollahi said that June 2, 2022 marked the first day in Iran since the outbreak of the deadly virus that no one died of COVID-19, after more than two years of ceaseless struggle spearheaded by Iranian health staffers.

He said the accomplishment was made possible owing to the 150 million doses of vaccine administered to the population and in spite of hurdles in the path of providing vaccines due to the “cowardly sanctions” imposed on Iran by hegemonic powers.

The achievement, made possible through God’s grace, the Leader’s support, the president, and his administration, “showed the strength of the Iranian nation, the spirit of self-sacrifice of jihadi health staffers, sincerity and initiatives of faithful [Iranian] scientists, and deep solidarity of our dear people” with the administration and relevant bodies, Eynollahi said.

The public relations and information center of the Iranian Health Ministry and Medical Education announced on Thursday that no patient had died from COVID-19 in the previous 24 hours.

It said during the timespan, 175 new patients with COVID-19 were identified in the country, and 34 of them were hospitalized, while no patient died of the highly infectious disease.

The report was met with rejoicing in Iran, with people taking to social media to share the good news. People also compared Iran’s coronavirus statistics with those of the United States and other countries that had a negative impact on Iranians’ fight against the virus.

Coronavirus figures kept declining in Iran thanks to the government’s mass vaccination campaign. As of Friday, 64,551,377 people have received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccines, 57,869,051 people the second dose, and 27,565,357 people the third dose. The total number of vaccines injected in the country also reached 149,985,785 doses.

Iran has been battling one of the deadliest coronavirus outbreaks in the world, with the draconian US-led sanctions significantly hampering the country’s efforts to rein in the spread of the virus and provide vaccines from other countries.

The sanctions were imposed by the administration of former President Donald Trump under a “maximum pressure” campaign and have been maintained by the administration of Joe Biden, which has refused to soften the bans to ease pandemic-related hardship on Iranians.

Iranian officials have described the sanctions as “economic terrorism” and “medical terrorism” for their deadly impact on ordinary people.