Call for Stricter Adherence to Covid Mitigation Measures    

President Ebrahim Raisi urged stricter adherence to health protocols and the administration Covid-19 booster shots as new school and university semesters fast approach and incoming religious rituals increase the risk of transmissions. 
“Assessments show that the injection of booster shots are effective in protecting people’s lives,” the top official was quoted as saying by his website in the meeting of the National Coronavirus Headquarters. 
He said those who have refused to receive coronavirus booster doses are more exposed to the infectious disease. 
The government relaunched the Covid vaccination in early summer when new infections and hospitalizations began to surge, pointing to signs of a seventh wave of the pandemic hitting the country. 
Only 30.3 million Iranians, out of a population of 85 million, have chosen to get a third or fourth shot of the vaccine. Some 20,000 more jabs were administered in the past 24 hours, raising the total number of shots administered to 153.5 million. 
The president also pointed to the Arbaeen pilgrimage as a possible cause of another spike in cases and once again encouraged everyone to get vaccinated. 
Arbaeen is the world’s largest public gathering when as many as 25 millions of Shia Muslims walk the distance between two holy cities of Najaf and Karbala located in Iraq to mark the end of a two-month mourning period. 

Border Control Advised

During the meeting, Raisi said screening and identifying patients was a necessary step in preparing for Arbaeen and minimizing transmission rates. 
“I ask everyone to fully adhere to health protocols to stay safe from the coronavirus and its new variants,” he stated. 
The seventh wave of the pandemic, which took daily cases to as high as 11,000 in late July, was fueled by an Omicron variant, the BA.5, now the dominant strain throughout Iran. 
The highly contagious variant can elude antibodies produced by vaccination or prior infection, but early analysis showed that the strain now causes less severe symptoms than the original coronavirus. 
Despite worrisome estimates, the seventh wave seems to have subsided as daily cases drop and hospitals report less outpatient visits. 
On Saturday, the Health Ministry registered 1,835 active Covid cases, down by 50% from a day earlier, and 44 more deaths, down by 22 from Friday. 
The number of cities placed on red Covid alert rose from last week’s 78 to 106, but it was still down from 130 red regions reported two weeks ago. 
Since the start of the pandemic in 2020, countries around the world have logged more than 600 million Covid infections and 6.47 million mortalities.