Iran Records 12,500 Daily Covid-19 Cases

The number of newly-identified coronavirus cases continue to climb in Iran, with the Health Ministry registering a record high of 12,543 daily infections on Sunday. 
“The fresh cases took the national total to over 762,000,” the spokeswoman of Health Ministry, Sima Sadat Lari, was quoted as saying by ISNA.
“Over the past 24 hours, 459 Covid-19 patients lost their lives and the death toll reached 41,493,” she added.
The government is planning to tighten restrictions across the country to slow the spread of the disease, as a third wave of infections challenges its healthcare system.
According to Lari, “Only four of Iran’s 31 provinces are not on red alert.” 
Starting Saturday, regions on alert Level 3, or red, will only require the presence of one-third of government employees, all non-essential occupations will close, and local residents will be banned from leaving the county. 
Health Minister Saeed Namaki commented on the new measures on Sunday by saying, “Although Nov. 21 is late, it can help us handle this emergency situation. The full implementation of belated restrictions is preferred to poorly executed half-measures.” 
The minister’s request to expedite the enforcement of restrictive measures has been denied by the National Coronavirus Taskforce.
Tehran’s City Council, among other authorities, had called for a complete shutdown of the capital to slow the spread of the disease.

New Measures

Namaki on Sunday announced his ministry’s new strategies to fight the coronavirus pandemic, including patient isolation and increased testing. 
“We will use the resources of hotels and inns to quarantine coronavirus patients. We are equipped with tools that allow us to monitor the whereabouts of the patients,” he said.
The Health Ministry has also boosted daily testing capacity from 25,000 to 40,000, and is planning to increase it to 100,000 per day. 
“Rapid tests only take 20 minutes to produce results,” the minister said, noting that rapid testing can assist with contact tracing. 
“For every person who tests positive, we will be obliged to track 10 cases that have been in contact with the infected individual.”
Lari said Iran has performed 5.5 million PCR tests since the start of the outbreak.
“Nearly 559,000 have recovered from the respiratory illness and 5,666 are hospitalized in intensive care units in serious condition,” she said.
The tally of the worldwide confirmed cases of coronavirus spiked to 54.44 million and the death toll rose to 1.32 million.