Iranian health official warns of new Omicron surge possibility

The committee’s secretary for epidemiology and research says the number of referrals to hospitals for Covid infection has tripled over the past days and there is a high possibility that coronavirus cases begin a rising trend in the coming weeks.

Masoud Younesian says the more prevalent cases are now Omicron’s 4BA and 5BA sub-variants that are more resistant to vaccines.

He added that Iran is also facing the threat of rising Covid cases in the neighboring countries including Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Emirates, Iraq, Bahrain and Turkey, that have seen surges in new covid cases over the past weeks.

“In other locations in the world, where things were similar to ours, they saw peaks with a fifth or a sixth of their highest Omicron peaks. This means if we reach a daily peak of 20,000 Omicron infections, it will not be difficult to imagine new four-digit infection figures and two-digit death figures,” he said.

Younesian added that face masks should be used in closed spaces with little ventilation and people who have not received vaccines should be banned from public spaces.

“Based on official national figures, some 20 to 25 percent of eligible people have not received coronavirus vaccines and 30 to 35 percent has received just one dose,” he said.

The Iranian health ministry logged no deaths from Covid-19 on Saturday over the past 24 hours.

The daily caseload as per the ministry‘s figures was 251 including 65 hospitalizations.