The number of coronavirus patients in Iran has exceeded 1.5 million.
The Iranian Ministry of Health announced that with the identification of 8011 new patients with coronavirus in Iran, the number of people infected with the disease in the country has exceeded one million and five hundred thousand.
According to a report on Tuesday, February 18, by the IRNA news agency, Sima Lari, spokesperson for the Ministry of Health, said that including patients identified in the last 24 hours, the total number of COVID-19 patients in Iran has reached 1,534,034.
During this period, 89 more patients with coronavirus have died in Iran, bringing the official death toll from the virus in Iran to 59,117.
Of the newly identified patients, 690 have been hospitalized, and currently 3,696 patients with COVID-19 in Iran are in severe condition.
Although Islamic Republic officials provide the media with daily government statistics on coronavirus infections and deaths, independent sources doubt the accuracy of these statistics.
Non-governmental sources believe that the number of coronavirus victims in Iran is at least two to three times the official figure.
At the same time, Alireza Zali, president of Tehran's Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, also described "false negative tests" as a "very dangerous phenomenon" in the spread of epidemics.
He emphasized the quality of the definitive coronavirus diagnostic test in identifying patients.
Currently, according to the Ministry of Health, 9 cities are in red status, 39 cities are in orange status, 228 cities are in yellow status, and 172 cities are in blue status.
The red cities are Abadan, Ahvaz, Bandar Mahshahr, Dezful, Dasht-e Azadegan, Shadegan, Shushtar, Karun, and Hoveyzeh.
The color coding of cities in terms of coronavirus is being announced at a time when experts believe that the change in this color coding is a factor in the simplistic approach to coronavirus in Iran and the increase in travel and socializing.
Source: Radio Farda
