Daily Covid-19 Infections Rise Past 8,000

EghtesadOnline: Iran’s Health Ministry reported some 8,000 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday, the highest single-day rise in nearly two months, as experts warn of a rising fourth wave of infections.

News ID: ۷۸۶۰۳۱

17 February 2021

“The newly identified patients pushed the national tally to 1.534 million,” spokeswoman for the Health Ministry, Sima Sadat Lari, was quoted as saying by IRNA.

Number of overnight deaths, which had remained between 50 and 60 for several days, once again rose to some 90 on Tuesday, bringing the total toll to 59,117, the health official said.

“The danger of a fourth wave is serious, we need to cooperate to prevent the transmission of the coronavirus,” she said. “Especially the mutated British variant.”

So far, 17 confirmed cases of the mutated strain have been detected across the nation. The majority of patients infected with the British variant live in the northwestern province of Qazvin, neighbor to the capital Tehran, according to the head of the Health Ministry’s public relations, Kianoush Jahanpour.

The mutated coronavirus variant first spotted in Britain, known as 20I/501Y.V1 or B.1.1.7, is more infectious and one new research carried out by British government scientists has linked the strain to a higher risk of hospitalizations and deaths.

Over the past ten days, 311 contracted the virus and three died from it every hour, data collected by the Health Ministry showed.

“Nine cities are currently on red alert,” Lari pointed out. Iran had registered no high-risk or red zones for three weeks before the disease begun its resurgence.

Since the virus was first spotted in the central city of Qom about a year ago, more than 1.3 million have recovered from the respiratory illness and roughly 3,700 are in serious condition, hospitalized in ICU units, Lari said.

“Iran has carried out 10.16 million PCR tests since the start of the outbreak,” she said.

Nations around the world have registered 109.7 million coronavirus cases and 2.42 million fatalities.