Covid Cases on the Rise Among Youngers

Iran has experienced a sharp rise in Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations among children under the age of 10 from 0.9% last year to 11% in February, the head of Tehran’s Coronavirus Headquarters announced on Tuesday.
“Across the province of Tehran, infections in children have soared by over 10% in the last 11 months,” Alireza Zali was quoted as saying by ISNA.
“Two age groups, those under 10 and above 70 are considered high-risk groups. They need to strictly abide by health protocols.”
The official noted that more stringent measures should be imposed to stem the spread of the British coronavirus strain that has so far killed three in Tehran.
The mutated coronavirus variant first spotted in Britain, known as 20I/501Y.V1 or B.1.1.7, is more infectious and new research carried out by British government scientists has linked the strain to a higher risk of hospitalizations and deaths.
The strain has been detected in several provinces across the country. Health officials believe that the British variant has crossed Iran’s borders through Iraq.
Earlier this week, the country closed several border checkpoints with Iraq to halt the further spread of the mutated strain, as it continues to vaccinate its population against the respiratory illness.

Daily Update

Iran reported 8,330 freshly identified cases of the novel coronavirus on Tuesday, taking the national tally to 1.59 million, spokeswoman for the Health Ministry, Sima Sadat Lari, said.
“Over the past 24 hours, 91 Covid-19 patients lost their lives, bringing the total death toll to 59,664,” she added.
According to the ministry official, 11 cities are currently on red alert, all located in the western province of Khuzestan where the more contagious British variant of the virus roams. 
“Right now, the number of Covid-19 infections doubles every eight days in Khuzestan,” Deputy Health Minister Iraj Harirchi said.
“Tests for the mutated virus are extremely expensive. Each test costs 10 million rials [$406] and we only have three devices to test the new strain.”
Lari said more than 1.35 million have recovered from the infectious disease and nearly 3,700 were hospitalized in ICU units.
“Iran has so far carried out 10.6 million diagnostic tests.
Some 219 countries have recorded 112.3 million Covid-19 cases and 2.48 million deaths, since the virus was first spotted in Wuhan, China.