6-Day Shutdown Imposed to Rein in Rampaging Virus

The National Coronavirus Headquarters announced a nationwide six-day lockdown to stem a tide of new Covid-19 infections caused by the Delta variant. 
As per the order, all non-essential businesses will close starting Monday through next Saturday and interprovincial travel is banned, IRNA reported.
Spokesman for the NCH, Alireza Raeisi, said the travel ban will come into effect on Sunday at noon. “Protocols will be strictly observed and there will be no compromise,” he added.
The latest lockdown introduced in the two key provinces of Tehran and Alborz drew a chorus of criticism from public and media outlets as most businesses remained open and millions traveled, further escalating the situation. 
Each person infected with the highly contagious Delta variant can, without mitigation, pass on the virus to eight people. With the original Covid-19 strain, the number stood at three. 
The mutation has overwhelmed Iran’s healthcare system and triggered a shortage of medicine as 40,000 people are diagnosed with it and over 500 lose their lives to it on a daily basis.
President Ebrahim Raeisi on Saturday urged all authorities and the general public to be united against the spread of the contagion and said he will give local officials more wiggle room to implement safety measures.
Pointing to a faster vaccine rollout, he said his administration had finalized the purchase of 30 million jabs. “Experts believe that to contain the spread of the virus, 60 million doses are needed,” the president noted.
Over 524,000 doses of Covid vaccines were administered throughout the country in a single day, taking the total number of shots to 18.5 million. 
So far, some 3.8 million Iranians have received both doses and 14.7 million been given a first shot.

Red Alert

The Health Ministry on Saturday said that 80% of Iran’s cities are on red alert and increased the number of high-risk cities by 27 to a whopping 359.
The figures, updated on local Covid mobile application Mask, showed that 59 cities have been color-coded as mid-risk orange and 30 as yellow. No city across Iran fits into the low-risk blue category.
The Health Ministry on the same day logged 466 fatalities and 29,700 newly detected cases, pushing the national toll to 97,200 and infections to 4.389 million. 
Health authorities have warned that further negligence could rise coronavirus deaths to 600-800 per day. 
The fifth wave of the disease is not expected to subside for the next few weeks as infections and mortalities continue to climb. 
Iran has carried out over 27 million tests to identify infections since February 2020 and 3.7 million have either recovered or been discharged from hospitals.
More than 7,200 patients are currently hospitalized in ICU units.  
Worldwide Covid-19 patients around the world jumped to 207.1 million on Saturday and deaths from the outbreak rose to 4.3 million.