Leader Lauds Role of Nurses in Combating Covid-19

Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei on Sunday praised the work of nurses across the country during the coronavirus pandemic.
In a televised speech to mark the National Day of Nurses, Ayatollah Khamenei paid tribute to nurses who have over the past 10 months worked under conditions that are “more complicated and stressful than usual”, Leader.ir reported.
“Sacrifices made by nurses during this period have made them more dear and honorable in the eyes of the public,” he said.
The top official concluded by asking the government to meet the demands of nurses in regard to wages and job security.
Deputy Health Minister Alireza Raeisi also expressed admiration for the “brave” efforts of nurses as the virus outbreak has overwhelmed hospitals in autumn. 
Raeisi noted that hospitalizations around the country have significantly dropped over the past couple of weeks after stringent measures stemmed the spread of the contagious disease.
He said, “Right now, cases in 30 out of Iran’s 31 provinces are on a downward slope. Only in the province of Mazandaran is the trend steady and sometimes growing.”
More than 6,300 contracted the novel coronavirus within 24 hours, pushing the tally of cases to 1.158 million, the spokeswoman for the Health Ministry, Sima Sadat Lari, said. 
“Over the past 24 hours, Covid-19 claimed the lives of 177 patients,” Lari said, bringing the national death toll to 53,600.

Potential Winter Resurgence

Raeisi warned that if health protocols are not closely followed by the public, an upsurge in cases could trigger yet another wave of the respiratory illness.
Cautioning against gatherings during winter, he said, “According to national statistics, over 51% of transmissions are linked to family gatherings. I am asking people not to hold gatherings in winter so that we do not witness another wave.”
Mohammad Reza Zafarqandi, the head of the Medical Council of the Islamic Republic of Iran, stressed the need for purchasing Covid-19 vaccines as fast as possible.
“While I respect the work of Iranian scientists, we need to focus on buying a coronavirus vaccine and begin mass inoculation,” he stressed.
Iran is planning to order at least 38 million doses of the vaccine, enough to immunize 19 million people. A local Covid-19 vaccine is expected to become ready by June 2021.
Some 885,000 have recovered from Covid-19 and discharged from hospitals while 5,563 are in critical condition, Lari said.
The number of PCR tests administered by Iran to track infections crossed the seven million mark on Sunday, she said. 
Iran carries out 40,000 tests a day. 
Over 76.7 million have tested positive for coronavirus throughout the world and 1.69 million have lost their lives to the contagion.