Daily Corona Cases Climb to Over 5,000

Iran’s daily tally of Covid-19 cases continued to surge to over 5,000 on Friday driven by the highly contagious Omicron variant of the coronavirus. 
Overnight infections surpassed 5,000 for the first time in the past 60 days as health experts sound the alarm over community transmission of Omicron, IRNA reported. 
Iran detected the Omicron variant in a middle-aged recent traveler to the United Arab Emirates a little over a month ago. 
The highly mutated variant was first identified by South Africa and reported to the World Health Organization in late November.
The variant of concern is quickly replacing Delta as the dominant variant across the world. 
Scientists are rushing to gather more data on Omicron but so far evidence suggests that the easily transmissible mutation causes less severe disease and a third vaccine shot provides more immunity against it. 
Health Minister Bahram Einollahi on Friday urged anyone over the age of 18 to get booster shots as soon as possible. Over 14 million Iranians have already received the third dose. 
The National Coronavirus Headquarters is set to hold a meeting on Saturday morning to decide on the return of restrictive measures to prevent further spread of the virus.