Iran, the country in the Middle East most affected by the coronavirus pandemic, has officially crossed the 60,000 dead mark, the Ministry of Health announced on Sunday.
Several senior Iranian officials, including President Hassan Rouhani, had warned in recent weeks against a “fourth wave” of COVID-19, after an increase in the number of cases in some regions of the country.
“Unfortunately, 93 people have lost their lives due to COVID-19 in the past 24 hours,” bringing the official toll of the disease to 60,073 deaths in Iran, Sima Sadat Lari reported on state television on Sunday. , the spokesperson for the Ministry of Health.
The Islamic Republic has also recorded 8,010 daily infections in the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of infections to 1,631,169 in Iran, according to the same source.
Several Iranian officials nevertheless admit that these results are much lower than reality.
The government has expressed its concern on several occasions after the detection in early January of the first case of the British variant in Iran.
“We have identified 112 people affected by the British variant of the coronavirus in the country, of which 8 have died,” regretted Friday Aliréza Raïssi, Deputy Minister of Health, according to the ministry’s website.
Aliréza Zali, in charge of the coordination against the epidemic in the capital, confirmed Thursday the circulation of the English virus in Tehran, deeming the situation “very fragile”.
The Islamic Republic had officially recorded less than 7,000 daily contaminations since the end of December, but this threshold was again crossed at the beginning of February.
The number of deaths per day remains below 100, which is the lowest level since June.
The vaccination campaign was launched on February 9, less than a week after the delivery of the first batch of Russian vaccine Sputnik V.
Iran also began clinical trials of its own vaccine in December.
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