COVID-19: 'Every two minutes, one person dies,' says report as Iran sees surge in cases

The Iranian Health Ministry on Tuesday (August 10) reported that Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic has claimed 95,111 lives in the country so far after 508 new deaths were registered in the past 24 hours.

On its official site, it further confirmed 39,139 new cases, taking the total to 4,238,676. So far, 3,591,313 patients have recovered from the disease or been discharged from the hospital.

Earlier, Iran's state TV on Monday said that "at least one person is dying every two minutes" due to COVID-19 as cases continue to surge in the country, making Iran the worst-hitin the Middle East. "Every two seconds one person gets infected in Iran and almost every two minutes one person dies from the coronavirus," state TV said.

It also added that most of Iran's 31 provinces have moved from the lower risk orange level to red alert, in which only essential businesses are allowed to operate.

As the COVID-19 infections have been increasingsince June, the Iranian officialswarned that it is a "fifth wave" caused by the highly infectious Delta variant.

Tehran, with a population of over eight million, is facing the highest numbers of deaths, infections and hospitalisation, according to Nader Tavakoli, deputy head of the capital's virus task force.

He recently told ISNA news agency that "we will see deaths increase in the coming days". He further added that "we have no idea when we would reach the peak of this fifth wave". He also mentioned that Tehran's hospitals and emergency wards are "overburdened".

Vaccination in Iran:

Iran is now hoping that vaccinations will help with the health crisis and curb the spread of virus, however,the inoculation campaign, which waslaunched in February, has progressed slower than planned.

In January, Iran hadbanned the import of US and British vaccines, saying they were "unreliable" and could spread the infection.However, the authorities have approved the emergency use of two locally produced vaccines,with the only mass-produced one, COVIran Barekat, still in short supply.

Iran's new President Ebrahim Raisi has urged officials to speed up vaccinations.

By Tuesday, 13,520,127 people have received at least onedose of a vaccine in the country, while 3,274,980 have taken two doses.

(with inputs from agencies)