Covid Hospital Admissions Rise

Hospitalization rates for Covid patients have increased in the Masih Daneshvari Hospital, Iran’s primary medical center for coronavirus referrals, a member of the disease’s science committee, Payam Tabarsi, stated on Monday. 
“Despite the fact that most cases are mild, the number of hospitalizations has risen compared to one month ago,” Tabarsi was quoted as saying by ISNA. 
Health authorities identified two new Omicron offshoots in the country nearly three months ago. The BQ.1 and the XBB are highly transmissible but they mostly cause less severe symptoms than previous variants, according to experts. 
Pointing out that most cases that are dismissed as the common cold are in fact coronavirus infections, Tabarsi said, “Covid is still circulating and it has not been eliminated.”
He added that symptoms will only be severe in patients suffering from pre-existing health conditions and other vulnerable groups. Authorities have encouraged the public to receive booster shots if more than six months have passed since the administration of their last jab. 
On Monday, 511 more patients tested positive for the coronavirus and almost half of them were hospitalized due to severity of symptoms. The seven-day average for daily coronavirus cases have spiked threefold compared to a month earlier. 
The Health Ministry on the same day logged nine fatalities, down by six compared to one day ago. Monday’s deaths took the national toll to 144,902.
Currently more than 350 Covid patients are hospitalized in intensive care units across the country. 
Hamidreza Jamaati, secretary for the Covid science committee, stated that the coronavirus could reemerge if the public neglects to wear face masks in public enclosed spaces. 
“It is not important to use face masks in open spaces,” he added. 
Based on data provided by the Health Ministry, only 18% of employees and their customers cover their faces.
Jamaati said, “[Mask wearing] should be taken seriously by the public since the coronavirus has shown it does not play jokes.”
The Iranian government no longer imposes any lockdown measures to contain the pandemic. Wearing masks is encouraged but it is not enforced by the law. 
During the early days of the eighth wave in January, President Ebrahim Raisi announced to the public that no quarantine measures were to be imposed this time around. 
The recent surge in Covid infections, which is labeled the eighth wave by the Health Ministry, is expected to reach its peak within the next few weeks.