Senior Iranian officials called for “total shutdown” in Tehran for at least two weeks or a month to face the third COVID-19 wave.
With 14,931 fatalities so far, Tehran’s coronavirus death toll accounts for almost half of Iran’s overall death toll from the virus, Nahid Khodakarami, member of the Tehran city council, said on Sunday.
“We must think about a total shutdown of Tehran due to the high prevalence of the coronavirus, or else we will not overcome the third wave of the disease,” the official news agency IRIB quoted Mohsen Hashemi, head of the Tehran city council, as saying.
For her part, spokeswoman for the Ministry of Health and Medical Education said during her daily briefing on Sunday that 252 deaths caused by the virus were registered overnight, increasing the death toll to 30,375.
Sima Sadat Lari also said that 3,890 new cases were recorded, of which 1,661 had to be hospitalized.
Also, 4,744 are in critical condition and will remain in intensive care units, Lari noted.
The number of laboratory tests carried out in Iran for COVID-19 has increased to 4,511,154, according to the spokeswoman.
The risk of infection is still high in 27 provinces while three others are on alert over the spread of the epidemic, she said.
