38.8 Million People Screened for Coronavirus Infection in Iran: Minister

Saeid Namaki said of those screened, as many as 547,000 had symptoms of coronavirus infection.

“Of that figure, 74,000 people have been sent to health and medical centres, and 8,000 have been taken to hospital for treatment,” he said.

“3,000 of them were diagnosed with requirements to be hospitalized or treated,” the minister added.

He said the results of tests conducted so far suggest there will be a growing trend of coronavirus infection in the country from now on, but “it does not mean that the situation in the country has gotten worse.”

“Rather, we are seeing better conditions compared to the previous days because, proportionately, the number of deaths has decreased compared to the number of infections,” he said.

He underlined that prompt diagnosis of the disease in individuals will decrease the rate of infection.

“We try to put suspicious cases under quarantine,” the minister noted.

“Given that the pace of detecting patients is speeding up, the rate of infection will keep increasing slightly; so, we keep recommending people stay in their homes,” he said.