TEHRAN (FNA)- The Iranian health ministry announced on Sunday that 2,685 new cases of COVID-19 virus infection have been identified in the country during the past 24 hours, noting that 17,190 patients have passed away so far.
“2,685 new patients infected with COVID-19 have been identified in the country during the past 24 hours and 1,423 patients have been hospitalized,” Iranian Health Ministry Spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari said on Sunday, and added, “The total number of the COVID-19 patients reached 309,437.”
“Unfortunately, 208 patients have passed away in the past 24 hours, increasing the number of the dead to 17,190, and 4,089 patients are in critical conditions,” she added.
Sadat Lari expressed pleasure that 268,102 cases infected with coronavirus have recovered or been discharged from hospitals.
The ministry’s spokeswoman also noted that 2,508,418 coronavirus tests have been conducted across the country.
She warned that 3 provinces are still in read condition or status of alert.
President Hassan Rouhani on Saturday lauded all Iranians for observing coronavirus-related instructions set by the health ministry, and noted that obligatory protocols will persist until discovering the vaccine.
Everybody should follow the instructions announced by the National Anti-Coronavirus Campaign Headquarters so that we overcome the virus and the related vaccine is made, Rouhani noted.
Those provinces which had already been in red conditions passed the coronavirus peak today, President Rouhani said.
He appreciated the nation for cooperating with the health officials in fighting the COVID-19.
Rouhani said in June that over 1,000 medical centers in the country have received necessary equipment to conduct tests on people suspected of infection to coronavirus, and added that Iran ranks first in the Muslim world in scientific achievements.
"Based on a report [by the health ministry], 1,200 centers across the country are ready to take samples and tests from people and 17,500 nursing and health homes are also prepared to provide hygiene and treatment services to people," Rouhani said, addressing a meeting of the national coronavirus campaign headquarters in Tehran.
Also, earlier this month, he said that the country will increase the number of its hospital beds to 8,000 by the end of the current Iranian year (March 19).
"We will add 8,000 hospital beds by the yearend," Rouhani said.
He added that 1,500 hospital beds for special cases have also been added to the capacity of the country's medical system since the outbreak of coronavirus in the country, noting that 2 drug production lines are also added every month to the country's pharmaceutical capacity.
The coronavirus COVID-19 is affecting approximately all countries and territories around the world. The virus was first reported in the central Chinese city of Wuhan late last year. It has so far killed over 689,200 people and infected more than 18 million others globally.
The Iranian foreign ministry declared that despite Washington’s claims of cooperation to transfer drugs to Iran via the new Swiss-launched payment mechanism, the US is troubling the process amid the coronavirus outbreak in the country.
Although US claims that medicines and medical equipment are not under sanctions, they have practically blocked the transfer of Iran’s financial resources in other countries into the Swiss Humanitarian Trade Arrangement (SHTA), former Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Seyed Abbas Mousavi said.
As the death toll from the virus surges, Iran intensifies its preventive safety measures. Closures of schools and most universities have been extended until further notice.
