Corona Zones Status to Be Updated Every 5 Days

The status of counties declared "white zones" over the coronavirus outbreak will be updated every five days to modify the decisions on easing restrictions based on the new data, a health ministry official said. 
Iran's coronavirus taskforce has split the country into three zones: "white" regions that have reported no new cases of the virus disease called COVID-19 in two weeks, "yellow" zones with a moderate number of infections and "red" zones where the spread of the virus is alarming, ISNA reported.
"The surveys of the past two weeks showed that 116 counties had a 'white' status; the taskforce for combating coronavirus will provide recommendations on the reopening of religious, cultural and sport centers in these white zones on Sunday," Deputy Health Minister Iraj Harirchi said on Thursday.
“The districts will be reevaluated every five days to ensure they have maintained their minimum infection rates.”   
He said restrictions have been relaxed to some extent nationwide to protect people's livelihood, but warned that the more businesses return to operation, the more people need to meet health and social distancing protocols. 
Harirchi also said sections in hospitals have now been designated for non-COVID-19 patients.
"People with underlying diseases did not go to hospitals for fear of catching coronavirus, hence plans have been made so that large sections of hospitals would attend to these patients and ordinary people," he said. 

1,006 Overnight Cases 

According to Health Ministry Spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour, 1,006 people were confirmed as infected with coronavirus over the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of such cases to 95,646.
Out of this number, 76,318 people have recovered and 6,091 lost their lives, including the 63 deaths registered overnight, Jahanpour was quoted as saying by IRNA.  
Some 2,900 patients are currently under intensive care in hospitals, he added. 
Jahanpour noted that so far, 457,023 coronavirus PCR [polymerase chain reaction] tests have been conducted in the country. 
PCR is the most reliable test for detecting coronavirus infection.