Covid Cases Pick Up Again

Daily coronavirus cases are on the rise once again after falling below the key 10,000 mark for two days as the Health Ministry registered 13,400 infections on Tuesday. 
Overnight fatalities also bounced back to 213 after dropping under 200 earlier this week, taking the national toll to over 123,000, ISNA reported.
Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi on Tuesday sounded the alarm over the possibility of a sixth wave of the disease emerging across the country as more and more vaccinated people let their guard down. 
“Observing Covid-19 safety measures has declined to roughly 45%, this is concerning. Everyone needs to be careful,” Vahidi noted. “If not, we’ll experience another peak and face many problems.”
Thousands of Iranians have resumed trips and are holding public gatherings after vaccination coverage rate across the country rose exponentially over the summer. 
Iran’s vaccination campaign was launched back in February and rollout picked up speed as the fifth wave of the virus overwhelmed the healthcare system and caused a shortage of medicine in early summer. 
The Health Ministry now gives out over one million vaccine doses on a daily basis as part of efforts to stem the disease. 
More than 46 million people have received a first dose and 20.7 million have been fully vaccinated, bringing the total number of shots administered to 67 million. 
Vahidi pointed out that in less than ten days, certain businesses, most notably those in the food industry, can only operate if all employees have been inoculated against Covid. 
Iran is planning to make vaccination mandatory and limit the access of unvaccinated people to public services. 

Over 92m Doses Imported

An official with Iran’s Customs Administration announced on Tuesday that the number of imported Covid-19 vaccines had climbed past 92 million.
“Following the entry of the 65th shipment of coronavirus vaccines, the tally of vaccines brought into the country rose to 92.84 million,” Mehrdad Jamali Arvanaqi said. 
Over the past few months, the Iranian Red Crescent Society has imported 81 million doses of the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine into the country.
According to the official, another six million shots will be delivered to Iran by the end of the week. Experts suggest that at least 140 million jabs are needed to contain the outbreak in the country. 
Worldwide coronavirus cases increased to 239 million on Tuesday as mortalities from the outbreak reached 4.87 million.