Official: 6 out of 9 cities in Tehran Province on red Covid alert

An Iranian health official says that six out of the nine cities in Tehran Province are on red alert due to a high rate of infections with coronavirus there, but that the number of fatalities remain “very low” during the seventh wave despite the highly speedy spread of Covid-19.

Since the dominant BA.4 and BA.5 sub-strains of the coronavirus’ Omicron variant do not normally affect the lungs and cause less severe infections, the death toll remains “very low” despite the “extremely high” rate of infections, explained Dr. Nader Tavakkoli, a member of Tehran’s task force against the virus, on state TV.

He, however, sounded the alarm at the danger facing the elderly and those suffering from underlying diseases, such as diabetes, heart or lung complications, and cancer.
The death toll mostly includes people above 50 with underlying conditions, according to Tavakkoli.

He said, “60 percent of those hospitalized are above the age of 50. Some 82 percent of the fatalities are also related to the same age group.”

On Thursday, the daily death toll from Covid-19 in Iran hit a new high in weeks, with the Health Ministry reporting 81 deaths, 7,415 cases of infection, and 1,268 hospitalizations.

Meanwhile, Dr. Massoud Younesian, an epidemiologist, said any wave of infections is triggered by two factors: the behavior of the virus and that of the humans.

He said people can help contain the speed of the spread by adhering to health and social distancing protocols.

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