Iran reported its highest coronavirus daily death rate in over two months on Saturday, following the end of the two-week long New Year holidays, with officials warning that a fourth wave of the pandemic has emerged in at least two of the country's 31 provinces.
"Daily fatalities rose to 123, bringing the outbreak's death toll to 62,999," Health Ministry’s Spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari was quoted as saying by IRNA.
The daily mortality rate experienced a 70% spike compared to the start of the holidays and health officials have linked the increasing number of patients to holiday shopping, travel and gatherings.
President Hassan Rouhani said during Saturday's meeting of the National Coronavirus Headquarters that two of Iran's provinces have been hit with the long-dreaded fourth wave of the disease.
"The fourth wave has begun in two provinces and it will enter other regions if protocols are not observed," he warned.
According to the Health Ministry, adherence to safety guidelines have dropped from over 90% to 52% last month, a sign that another peak could occur in a couple of weeks.
The Health Ministry logged 11,420 new coronavirus infections on the first day of the week, taking the total number of cases to 1.92 million.
'Dreadful Spring'
Deputy Health Minister Iraj Harirchi said on Saturday that Covid-19 hospitalizations have doubled, making it a “dreadful spring”.
"If safety measures are ignored, we'll have a dreadful spring ahead of us," the health official said.
Harirchi pointed out that compared to two months ago, the number of low-risk cities across Iran have dropped by 90% to only 37.
A total of 165 cities are currently color-coded as orange and red, the highest risk categories for virus transmission.
Iran is vaccinating its healthcare personnel against the contagion before moving to other priority groups.
Lari said that over 1.64 million have recovered from the respiratory illness and some 4,000 are in ICU units.
"Iran has carried out more than 13 million diagnostic tests since the start of the outbreak," she said.
Worldwide, coronavirus cases increased to 130.1 million on Saturday and the number of fatalities rose to 2.85 million.
