Iran’s Daily COVID-19 Cases Return to Four-Digit Numbers
Iran’s Ministry of Health announced on Monday, July 4, that based on official statistics, the number of daily coronavirus cases has once again reached four digits, standing at 1,007 cases.
According to official figures, the last time the number of COVID-19 cases in the country reached four digits was on April 27 of this year, when it stood at 1,009 cases, after which the figures began to decline.
Based on this report, eight patients also lost their lives in the past 24 hours, bringing the official death toll from COVID-19 in Iran to 141,404 people.
Currently, 232 COVID-19 patients are receiving care in intensive care units at hospitals.
The rising trend in the number of cases comes as the Ministry of Health reported yesterday a “three-fold increase” in hospital visits due to coronavirus infection in the first week of July, and a member of the scientific committee of the National Coronavirus Taskforce warned that two new coronavirus variants are likely to become prevalent in Iran soon.
In this regard, Navid Shafiq, a “critical care specialist,” told the Mehr news agency that currently “it is clearly observed that positive COVID-19 tests have increased among patients admitted to hospital wards, despite the fact that the number of tests has significantly decreased.”
According to Dr. Shafiq, the renewed increase in infection cases “could indicate the beginning of the next peak and increased mortality in the country,” and the reason is likely the decrease in “adherence to health care principles and mask-wearing as before” among the public.
This critical care specialist also added that the resurgence of COVID-19 “initially manifests itself as an increase in the number of patients, and then the number of critically ill patients increases, and finally we will face increased mortality.”
The renewed increase in coronavirus infections in Iran comes as Iranians are preparing for increased pilgrimages to the holy sites ahead of Eid al-Adha, and the first caravan to the holy sites, after a three-year pause due to the coronavirus pandemic, departed from the Shalamcheh border on July 2 heading to Karbala.
BioNTech and Pfizer, which jointly produce one of the most credible coronavirus vaccines, announced on Wednesday, June 29, that they will begin testing a new generation of coronavirus vaccine that can be effective against a wide range of virus variants from the second half of this year.
Source: Radio Farda
