School Year Will Start on Time, But in Online Format

Latest developments with the Covid-19 outbreak in Iran prompted government officials to cancel plans for in-person learning at the start of the upcoming school year as the Delta variant continues to ravage the country’s healthcare system. 
The National Coronavirus Headquarters, headed by President Ebrahim Raeisi, decided to delay the switch to on-site learning until requisite infrastructure was established, president.ir reported.
As per the new scheme, all school teachers and personnel should get vaccinated, ventilation systems need to be improved and classrooms decongested before schools can reopen. 
Iran has closed down schools since February 2020 to stem the spread of the virus through children and teenagers.
During Friday’s meeting, Raeisi vowed to mobilize every resource to expedite vaccine procurement and said he has had a phone conversation with his Chinese counterpart on more imports.
Iran is vaccinating its population of 85 million people mostly with the Chinese Covid vaccine, Sinopharm. So far, 16.4 million people have received the first dose of a corona vaccine and 5.5 million have been fully vaccinated.
The World Health Organization released a statement on Thursday expressing concern over the surge in infections and deaths across Iran and announced that the global vaccine distribution scheme COVAX will deliver eight million jabs by September to assist containment efforts. 
Iran’s Covid death climbed past 100,000 on Thursday and positive cases topped 4.6 million. At least 359 cities throughout the country have been placed on red alert and makeshift hospitals have been set up to attend to an influx of patients. 

24 Deaths per Hour

According to data collected by the Health Ministry, over the past ten days, 24 people have died from the contagion and 1,498 got infected every hour. 
On Saturday, the ministry logged 24,100 new infections and 544 fatalities. Some 7,600 patients with severe symptoms are hospitalized in ICU units. 
The highly transmissible Delta variant, first found in India, has quickly become the dominant strain in Iran, triggering a fifth wave that has exponentially increased daily cases and deaths. 
On Tuesday, the country registered over 50,000 new cases, its highest daily tally since the start of the outbreak. 
Authorities closed down non-essential businesses for the past six days and banned interprovincial travel but experts suggest that the measures taken are not nearly enough to curb the outbreak. 
Worldwide Covid cases rose to 211.7 million on Saturday and mortalities reached 4.4 million.