Covid kills 191 more people in Iran

Iranian Foreign Ministry figures on Saturday showed 191 people died of Covid 19 in the past 24 hours, pushing the total fatalities since the start of the pandemic to 134.798. Over the past day, 12,058 new Covid cases were also logged including 2,062 hospitalizations.

The Coronavirus pandemic is now driven by the Omicron strain of the virus.

Until several weeks ago, most Iranian cities were marked blue, which denotes the lowest level of risk from Covid. Now over 300 cities and towns are red and there are no blue areas countrywide.

Omicron is more contagious than other Covid strains.

Meanwhile, health officials in Iran dismiss claims that the variant is less deadly compared to other strains of the virus.

The officials are urging citizens to get their third dose of vaccine. Over 22 million people have so far done so.

But authorities say all people must be triple-vaxxed. They maintain that this will be instrumental in containing Omicron.