434 Covid Fatalities Set Single-Day Record

Iran set a new one-day record for coronavirus deaths on Sunday, reporting a daily spike of more than 430 deaths, health officials announced.

“Sunday’s fatalities took the national toll to nearly 35,300,” the Health Ministry’s Spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari was quoted as saying by ISNA.

Confirmed Covid-19 cases within a 24-hour period reached 7,719, taking the number of infections to 620,491, she added.

Health Minister Saeed Namaki said the deadly virus has grown “wilder, sneakier and more powerful”, as the country imposed new quarantine measures in 89 counties and 25 provincial capitals to curb the spread of the Covid-19 epidemic.

Nader Tavakkoli, an official with the National Coronavirus Taskforce, said they have received Tehran City Council’s proposal calling for a two-week shutdown of the capital.

Tavakkoli hoped that the taskforce will approve the recommendation to “break the chain of transmission”.

As per the proposal, all nonessential businesses should suspend activities and the public should remain at home at all times.

“Restrictions will be enforced to limit people’s movements in the city,” he said.

Despite Tehran’s status as the epicenter of the viral infection, the National Coronavirus Taskforce has refused to impose strict lockdown measures in the city, fearing the decision’s economic fallout.

Half of government employees in Tehran have been ordered to telecommute, educational institutions, beauty salons and gyms have been closed and public gatherings are banned in the capital. Still, health authorities have warned that the measures are not enough for a city with over 10 million residents and a weak public transport system.

Tehran Police Chief Hossein Rahimi said they are stopping buses at random to warn passengers not wearing facemasks.

Despite the mandatory facemask wearing rule, Rahimi said they have not handed out fines to pedestrians so far and have only issued warnings.

Iran made facemask compulsory during the summer to tackle the second wave of infections.

Among the Top Five

Some 15% of hospitalized patients die from the infectious disease in Iran, Mohammad Reza Zafarqandi, the head of the Medical Council of the Islamic Republic of Iran, told ISNA.

“We are among the top five countries with the highest death rates in the world,” he said, noting that on average, only 5% of hospitalized patients die in most other countries.

The health official said 300 health personnel have died in Iran from the contagion.

“The medical council has gathered information indicating that the real number of deaths are three times higher than the official count,” he said.

Iran has been officially logging over 300 overnight fatalities in the past two weeks.

Over 486,000 have either recovered from the infectious disease or been discharged from hospitals, Lari said.

She noted that 5,244 are hospitalized in intensive care units and Iran has performed 4.96 million PCR tests so far.

Coronavirus infections continued to climb around the world with the tally of cases reaching 46.47 million and the death toll rising above 1.2 million.