More Cities on Covid-19 Red Alert

EghtesadOnline: The Health Ministry raised the alarm on Monday over the resurgence of the Covid-19 outbreak, recording the gradual spread of the virus from southern parts of the country to central cities.

News ID: ۷۸۶۵۵۲

29 June 2021

“The number of red cities on Covid-19 red alert are on the rise,” spokeswoman for the Health Ministry, Sima Sadat Lari, was quoted as saying by ISNA.

Iran has been monitoring land and sea borders in eastern and southern provinces to delay the arrival of the Indian double mutant variant, a highly contagious mutation of the coronavirus.

Lari warned, “Hospitalizations are increasing in the city of Tehran. There’s a chance Tehran could become a ‘red’ zone.”

Cities color-coded as red have almost tripled over the past three weeks. The health official urged the public to follow safety measures to curb transmission rates. “Or we will face the fifth wave of the coronavirus.”

So far, 3.180 million Iranians have tested positive for the infectious disease and nearly 84,000 have died from it.

Iran is ramping up vaccine rollout to cut the death rate among the elderly as it braces for a fifth peak of the pandemic triggered by an Indian mutation called the Delta variant.