Daily Covid Death Toll Back to Over 100

The Health Ministry on Monday reported 104 coronavirus-related mortalities, the first time Iran sees three-digit daily deaths in nearly 60 days. 
The recent surge in hospitalizations and cases finally caught up with the daily death rate on Monday, which was up by 22% compared to a day earlier, IRNA reported. 
After two days of falling Covid case numbers, the ministry logged a sharp rise in the daily tally to 38,819, up by 4,400 from Sunday. 
The sixth wave of the coronavirus is fueled by the highly contagious Omicron variant, first detected in the capital of Tehran in late December in a middle-aged man with recent history of travel to the United Arab Emirates. 
The National Coronavirus Headquarters on Monday announced new decisions for the next two weeks to tackle the rising tide of new Covid-19 patients. 
The NCH cut flights’ passenger capacity to 60% to curb transmission rates. It has also ordered office meetings in enclosed spaces to be held with at most 30 people. 
All religious and cultural gatherings can continue operations with 20% of capacity for a duration of at most 90 minutes. 
It also instructed the Interior Ministry and the Health Ministry to come up with a new form for Friday’s demonstrations celebrating the anniversary of the Islamic Revolution. 
Both ministries have been placed in charge of changing the factors which determine the color code of a city.  
Currently, 120 cities across the country have been put on red alert and 153 cities are coded as orange, or high-risk. Since the Omicron variant generally causes less severe disease, previous indicators no longer reflect the true extent of transmission rates. 
The Omicron variant was detected in South Africa and reported to the World Health Organization in November. It has since become the dominant variant in most areas around the world.