Covid-19 Hospitalizations, Deaths See Sharp Weekly Drop

The Health Ministry reported a steep decline in Covid-19 hospitalizations and deaths on Sunday, logging a nearly 25% drop compared to last week as the fourth wave of the outbreak is brought under control.
Spokeswoman for the ministry, Sima Sadat Lari, announced a 25% drop in hospitalizations and a 24.2% decrease in fatalities as well as a 26% decline in outpatients, ISNA reported.
“Over the past week, we witnessed a continuing downward trend in positive cases, deaths and outpatients,” the health official noted.
Iran registered 8,600 newly identified coronavirus infections on Sunday, bringing the national case tally to 2.832 million. Daily deaths rose above the 200 mark once again, with the ministry announcing the deaths of 216 more patients, taking the total toll to 78,597.
At the peak of the fourth wave in mid-April, confirmed cases of the coronavirus spiked to 25,500 and fatalities reached a record of 496 later that month.
Currently, eight cities are on the red alert and 233 cities are color-coded as orange. Some 207 cities are coded as yellow and no city across the country is categorized as blue.
The government is vaccinating the country’s population of 80 million people to prevent another wave of the disease. Over 455,000 have been fully vaccinated and 2.536 million have received the first dose.
The total number of shots administered amount to 2.991 million.
Over 2.333 million patients have recovered from the respiratory illness and some 4,800 are hospitalized in ICU units, in critical condition.
Iran has carried out more than 18.9 million diagnostic tests to detect infections in the over 15 months since the pandemic entered the country. 
The number of Covid-19 cases around the world rose to 167.1 million on Sunday and fatalities caused by the viral infection increased to 3.470 million.