Number of ‘red’ cities on Iran Covid-19 map decreasing as 7th wave abates

There are now 64 ‘red’ cities — where there is a high risk of infection with coronavirus — on the map, down from 106, according to the new updates released by the Iranian Health Ministry late on Friday.

With the ‘red’ zones having fallen into the categories bellow them, the number of ‘orange’ or ‘moderate risk’ cities reversely went up from 156 to 163.

According to the updates, 207 cities are also classified as ‘yellow’ or ‘low risk,’ up from 173.

The situation in 14 cities is ‘blue’ or ‘normal.’

Health officials say most parts of the country have passed from the peak of the seventh wave of infections, driven by BA.4 and BA.5 sub-variants of the Omicron strain.

They have, however, been urging people to keep adhering to the health protocols against the virus and go for booster shots.

On Friday, 2,019 new daily cases of infection with Covid-19 were detected, 524 of whom were hospitalized. The disease also claimed the lives of 35 more people.