Iran registered its biggest single-day spike in coronavirus cases on Monday with 3,900 new infections, as overnight deaths touched late July’s record high of 235.
“The record daily count of cases pushed the total tally to 475,600,” Health Ministry’s Spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari was quoted as saying by ISNA.
The number of overnight fatalities soared to 235 on Monday, up by 11% compared to a day earlier, she added.
Only days into the third wave, the daily toll has already reached Iran’s highest record in deaths during the peak of the second wave in late July.
Lari said the new deaths took the national total to 27,192.
Both daily infections and deaths have in recent days set records in the province of Tehran, prompting its governor general, Anoushirvan Mohseni Bandpey, to make wearing facemasks at all times mandatory starting next week.
Iran is also likely to hand out fines to violators of the new rules.
Lari said over 392,000 have recovered from the respiratory illness and 4,167 are in critical condition.
Iran has administered 4.15 million coronavirus tests in the past seven months.
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