Iran says one person dying of Covid-19 every two minutes

Iran says one person dying of Covid-19 every two minutes

Dubai:  10.08.2021

One person is now dying from Covid-19 every two minutes in Iran, state TV said on Monday, as West Asia’s worst-hit nation reported a new record daily toll of 588 fatalities. With authorities complaining of poor social distancing, state media say hospitals in several cities have run out of beds for new patients. Some social media users have criticised the clerical establishment over slow vaccinations, with only about 4% of the 83 million population fully inoculated.

Total deaths have reached 94,603, the ministry said, while cases rose by 40,808 in the past 24 hours to 4,199,537 in a fifth wave blamed on the highly transmissible Delta variant. “Every two seconds one person gets infected in Iran and almost every two minutes one person dies from the coronavirus,” state TV said, adding that most of Iran’s 31 provinces have moved from the lower risk orange level to red alert.

That compares to a reported rate of about one death per three minutes a month ago. In January, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei banned imports of US- and British-made vaccines, saying they were unreliable. Iran has blamed US sanctions for hampering purchases and deliveries of vaccines from other nations. Iran’s new President Raisi, who received his first dose of homegrown vaccine ‘COVIran Barakat’ in public on Sunday, has urged officials to speed up vaccinations. REUTERS

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