Upswing in Covid-19 Cases Anticipated in Fall, Winter

Iranian health officials have warned of a rise in coronavirus cases anticipated during the autumn and winter, urging the public to follow health guidelines to help curb the deadly virus over the next six months.
With the northern hemisphere heading into the autumn and winter, there is mounting concern over the concurrence of the influenza and Covid-19 epidemics, Shahnam Arashi, the Health Ministry’s deputy in charge of the Center for Viral Disease Control, was quoted as saying by IRNA on Monday.
“Coronavirus infections are expected to increase in the autumn and winter; the same prediction has been made in all countries in the northern hemisphere,” Arashi said.
The official noted that the Health Ministry’s response to the pandemic will not alter with a change in seasons, stressing that additional measures have been taken, such as supplying adequate flu shots.
Iran is importing 10-12 million influenza vaccines this year, 10 times more than its usual order, to protect high-risk groups against the overlap of the two epidemics. The striking similarities between the symptoms of the two viral diseases are sure to create confusion among the public and healthcare providers in the coming months.
On the vaccination for the novel coronavirus, Arashi said the vaccine is not expected over the next six months. 
He was referring to reports that some countries have launched clinical trials for potential Covid-19 vaccines, hoping for approval and mass production by early 2021.

ELIZA Tests

The World Health Organization delivered Germany’s sizable donation of 67,500 ELIZA (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) tests to Iran, ISNA reported.
The kits, donated by Germany’s Robert Koch Institute, will be used for research and screening purposes. ELIZA tests can detect antibodies made against the coronavirus in blood.
A section of the kits have been delivered to Iranian Blood Transfusion Organization to evaluate the quality of donated plasmas from recovered Covid-19 patents.
A number of the tests were delivered to Pasteur Institute of Iran to evaluate the precision of locally-made coronavirus tests and to Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences for research on the extent of the virus spread in children.
“Iran recorded 2,619 newly confirmed cases of the respiratory illness within a 24-hour period, 1,380 of whom required hospitalization,” Health Ministry’s Spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari was quoted as saying by ISNA.
“The new patients took the national caseload to 404,648,” she added. 
Over 348,000 have so far recovered.
The spokeswoman said overnight fatalities surged to 156 on Monday, up from 127 a day earlier, which pushed Iran’s death toll to over 23,300.
To detect cases of infection, Iran has carried out 3.58 million PCR tests since the virus was spotted in the country seven months ago.
Global cases of the contagion climbed to 29.2 million on Monday, with fatalities rising past 930,000.