Iran’s official death toll from Covid-19 has passed 100,000, as the Middle East’s worst-hit country struggles with a fifth wave of infections.
The health ministry reported 564 deaths over the previous 24 hours on Thursday, bringing the overall total to 100,255, state media said. The number of confirmed cases meanwhile rose by 31,266 to 4,587,683. However, experts believe the real figures are far higher.
Iran has seen a surge of infections driven by the Delta variant since late June and has reported 12,000 deaths in the past month.
On Monday, a six-day lockdown was imposed, with private travel between provinces banned and government buildings and non-essential businesses shut.
The government has also promised to step up its vaccination programme, which has seen just under 20% of the 83 million population given at least one dose.
Iran has so far relied mostly on vaccines from China and Russia.
But officials said last week that the importing of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines would be permitted, so long as they were not produced in the US or UK. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had forbidden the use of vaccines made in the two countries in January.
Source:Fiilafmonline/BBC
