Covid-19 Daily Deaths Expected to Rise by Early March

A member of the National Coronavirus Taskforce sounded the alarm over the rise in Covid-19 infections on Monday, estimating that by early March, the pandemic’s death toll will soar once again.
“The number of coronavirus patients is rising, if this trend continues, we’ll witness another rise in fatalities in four weeks,” Ali Mardani, a member of the taskforce’s science committee was quoted as saying by IRNA.
During the peak of the disease’s third wave, Iran’s overnight deaths spiked to as high as 486 before the contagion retreated, reducing the toll to below 100 over the past month.
Hoping that the fourth wave is not caused by the virus’s mutated and more contagious version first seen in Britain, Mardani said, “If this happens, the new wave will spread faster and deaths will climb higher than before.”
With transmission rates going up, the number of cities color-coded as yellow soared by 48, and cities coded as orange rose from 17 to 36, according to the latest Health Ministry updates.
During the Health Ministry’s daily coronavirus briefing on Monday, its spokeswoman, Sima Sadat Lari said, “Over the past 24 hours, 67 Covid-19 patients lost their lives, bringing the national death toll to 58,536.”
Monday’s tally of Covid-19 infections rose by 300 compared to the day before, with the ministry registering 7,300 new cases.
“So far, 1.26 million patient have recovered from the disease or been discharged from hospitals,” Lari said, adding that 3,770 are in critical condition. 
Iran has administered 9.72 million diagnostic tests since the virus was spotted in the central city of Qom, she said.
Countries around the world have reported 106.74 million confirmed cases of the coronavirus and 2.32 million deaths.