Over a million people in Iran have lost their jobs because of the coronavirus pandemic over the past 12 months, local media reported on Sunday citing the health minister.
"The economic consequences of the coronavirus pandemic during this time were extremely severe and led to unemployment of over a million people in the country," Interior Minister Abdolresa Rahmani Fasli said.
In addition to those directly affected by job cuts, there were severe restrictions in almost all industries - including tourism, gastronomy, the hotel trade and in beauty salons, dpa reported.
The US sanctions imposed in 2018 had already plunged Iran into an economic crisis, but this was further exacerbated by the onset of the pandemic a year ago.
The delivery of coronavirus vaccines has also been delayed as a result of the sanctions, as the country has no viable payment channel for their purchase.
So far, Iran has only been able to import 1.26 million vaccine doses from Russia, China and India, which is enough to vaccinate doctors, nurses and employees of some old people's homes.
Although the coronavirus infection rate in Iran has fallen over the past five months due to restrictions, the Health Ministry continues to register around 80 to 100 deaths and over 7,000 new infections every day.
