Iran Covid daily caseload drops sharply

Health Ministry figures showed that 4,505 people had tested positive for the Coronavirus in the past 24 hours. They included 1,070 hospitalizations. The Friday tally was 7,849.

Saturday’s death toll was 42 while that of Friday was 54.

The number of both cases and deaths from the virus has increased in the past couple of weeks.

Authorities blame this on both people’s failure to stick to health protocols and also the emergence of a new subvariant of the Omicron strain of Covid that spreads much faster than the previous ones.

People are now showing up at vaccination centers at the urging of officials to help bring the disease under control again. Earlier this month, Covid’s daily death toll was zero on several days.

Now the number of red cities where people face the highest level of risk from the virus has doubled in Iran. Authorities say 120 cities across the country are red. This is while the number of blue cities where things are normal have decreased to 50.