Iran Registers Record 5,039 Daily Covid-19 Cases

Iran saw a record daily increase in coronavirus infections on Tuesday, reporting 5,039 new cases that took the national total to 539,600, health officials announced.
“Overnight deaths remained above the 300 mark for the second day with 322 fatalities, bringing the national toll to 31,034,” Health Ministry’s Spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari was quoted as saying by ISNA.
With the daily count of cases and deaths breaking record after record, health officials reprimanded the ineffective implementation of lockdown measures by authorities and called for hefty fines and supervision over coronavirus regulations. 
Health Minister Saeed Namaki said despite the promises of National Coronavirus Taskforce, roads were not closed during the recent holiday and individuals who refrain from wearing facemasks are not penalized.
“If this broken wing is not healed, the epidemic will not be contained and we’ll have to collect the bodies downriver,” he warned.
Namaki announced his ministry’s new strategy to tackle the deadly outbreak by increasing the daily testing capacity and tracing infected individuals.
The health minister said, “We increased the number of daily tests from 1,200 to 25,000 … Now we will raise it to 40,000 per day.”
The ministry will also trace anyone who was in contact with a coronavirus-positive patient to isolate the infected in the early stages of the respiratory illness.
According to Government Spokeswoman Ali Rabiei, adherence to health protocols rose from 42% to 54% during the past two weeks. 

New Concerns 

Referring to travel restrictions that were not implemented during the recent holidays, Masoud Mardani, a member of National Coronavirus Taskforce, urged authorities to close roads to and from Iran’s five largest cities during the upcoming holidays. 
Mardani said, “The upcoming holidays are longer than the previous one. If stringent laws are not imposed, the number of cases will explode again.”
Noting that he is concerned more than ever, Mardani suggested that vehicles exiting cities for non-essential reasons be issued a fine of $35. 
The taskforce member pointed to Monday’s daily count of 337 deaths and said, “These data are not real. If you want to know how many die every day, multiply the number by 2.5 to get the real figures.”
More than 434,000 have recovered from the infectious disease while 4,810 are in critical condition, Lari said. 
Iran has administered 4.57 million coronavirus tests over the past eight months. 
Confirmed cases of Covid-19 across the world surged to 40.69 million and fatalities rose to 1.12 million.