Pointing to the very short interval between the second and third waves, Alireza Zali said, “Statistics from recent days indicate that a third wave of infections has hit Tehran,” ISNA reported on Sunday.
According to the health official, the capital Tehran and adjacent cities are “completely red” vis-à-vis Covid-19 and underlined the need for a provincewide remote working policy to curb transmissions.
Noting the earlier-than-expected formation of the third wave, Zali attributed the new jump in hospitalizations to a sharp drop in adherence to mitigation guidelines, end-of-summer vacations, recent religious ceremonies and the hurried reopening of schools and universities.
Zali dismissed the theory that herd immunity can provide protection against the deadly virus.
“A large number of the cases are recovered former patients,” he stressed.
Over 3,000 new confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus took the national total to 422,000, the spokeswoman for the Health Ministry, Sima Sadat Lari, said.
Iran recorded 183 overnight deaths on Sunday, which raised the toll to 24,300, Lari added.