SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Hospitals in many Iranian provinces are running out of capacity to handle coronavirus cases, health authorities said on Monday, with the virus now killing around 300 people a day or one person every five minutes.
Iran’s Deputy Health Minister Iraj Harirchi said the pandemic could cause 600 daily deaths in coming weeks if Iranians failed to respect health protocols in the Middle East’s hardest-affected country.
A caption that ran on state television news said an Iranian died of COVID-19 every five minutes, Reuters reported.
In August, state TV said one person died of the novel coronavirus every seven minutes.
Spokesperson of Iran’s Health Ministry Sima Sadat Lari told state TV on Sunday that 32,616 people had died of the disease and the number of confirmed cases had reached 568,896.
State TV reported that schools, mosques, shops, restaurants and other public institutions in Tehran remain closed until Nov. 20 as COVID-19 cases and deaths continued to hit record levels.
Schools, mosques, shops, restaurants and other public institutions in Tehran have been closed since October 3.
Officials said “extreme measures and limitations” will be imposed in at least 43 counties across the country for one week. State TV said 21 of Iran’s 31 provinces were on a coronavirus red alert.
