TEHRAN – Iranian President Hassan Rouhani emphasized the necessity for people to follow health protocols, as a new wave of coronavirus may hit the country within the next two months.

Rouhani made the remarks during a meeting of the national headquarters for coronavirus control on Saturday.

Emphasizing that facing such a great calamity was unprecedented during the century, he said that despite all the advances in medical knowledge, the outbreak of such a global pandemic was unpredictable to anyone.

But the world is still suffering from the disease, as tens of millions of people have been infected, and hundreds of thousands have died, he lamented.

He went on to note that the world could not even find a medicine to treat the disease, “so we moved toward vaccine production, adding, it is not clear when science will succeed in eradicating the disease, although historical experience has shown that mankind will be victorious in the fight against the pandemics.”

However, there is still no better way than avoiding gatherings, washing hands, and observing social distancing to break the transmission chain, he highlighted.

Rouhani further called on the people to observe the hygiene principles, insisting that anyone who enters the country should undergo the COVID-19 test. “We should all join hands to prevent the fourth wave of the outbreak,” he asserted.

Iran has taken the primary steps to develop and produce the COVID-19 vaccine and the country's experts are confident that the project will be finalized in March so that Iran will begin mass vaccination with the domestically-produced vaccine, he stated.

Highlighting that last week there were no cities were at high risk “red” zones in the country, Rouhani said that today some cities in Khuzestan province turned red and at high risk and some cities have also turned orange (medium-risk), which raises the alarm of the fourth wave of coronavirus.

Red-zone cities

Currently, the cities of Ahvaz, Abadan, Bandar Mahshahr, Dezful, Shadegan, Shushtar, and Karun in Khuzestan province are in “red” zones, Health Ministry’s spokesperson Sima-Sadat Lari told IRNA.

The declining trend of observing health protocols in the country will lead to a new coronavirus rise, which is very dangerous considering the new cases of the mutated virus, she lamented.

Lari also reported that following health protocols in the country reduced to 74.93 percent.

COVID-19 daily new cases and mortalities

In a press briefing on Saturday, Lari confirmed 7,120 new cases of COVID-19 infection, raising the total number of infections to 1,510,873. She added that 1,291,726 patients have so far recovered, but 3,720 remain in critical conditions of the disease.

During the past 24 hours, 74 patients have lost their lives, bringing the total number of deaths to 58,883, she added.

So far, 9,993,224 COVID-19 diagnostic tests have been performed in the country. 

Lari noted that currently, 9 cities are at high-risk “red” zones, 39 cities in medium-risk “orange” zones, and 228 in low-risk “yellow” zones.

FB/MG