“The number of fatalities rose to 55,095,” the spokeswoman of Health Ministry, Sima Sadat Lari, was quoted as saying by IRNA.
Over 6,270 tested positive for the novel coronavirus within one day, bringing the case tally to 1.218 million, the health official said.
According to latest data compiled by the Health Ministry, no city in Iran is on red alert and there are currently 198 orange counties and 340 yellow counties across the country.
Health Minister Saeed Namaki on Wednesday pointed out that there is a direct link between adherence to safety measures and transmission rates in a region.
“In Yazd Province, following health protocols is above the national average and the daily death toll has declined,” he said.
The top health official compared Yazd with the northern Mazandaran Province, where adherence to mitigation guidelines is much lower than the country’s average, causing an upward trend in infections, hospitalizations and deaths.
Namaki also expressed concern over the upcoming religious rituals and asked the public to be “careful in holding these events” so as to avoid another wave of infections.
It has been less than one month since the third wave retreated, but health officials continue to announce that the pandemic is not yet contained.
Over the past 10 days, the viral outbreak has infected 252 and killed six to seven patients every hour. Some 390 have also recovered from the disease per hour.
Vaccine Reassurance
Namaki on Wednesday reassured the public that although several companies in Iran are developing the Covid-19 vaccine, the government is planning to purchase the vaccine doses from credible sources around the world.
The minister’s comments came one day after Iran launched human trials for its first coronavirus vaccine, injecting the first three volunteers without any side effects such as body shocks.
“Human tests on the domestic vaccine doesn’t mean we’ll keep people waiting for the local version. Rest assured, we will not wait for the production of domestic vaccine,” Namaki said.
Lari said over 978,000 have recovered from the contagion and 5,087 are currently admitted to intensive care units.
“Iran has carried out more than 7.56 million PCR tests since the start of the deadly outbreak,” she added.
Nearly 1.8 million have died from the infectious disease among the 82.5 million who have contracted it.