TEHRAN – All passengers who come back to the country should provide evidence that they have received two doses of coronavirus vaccine, otherwise they have to undergo a PCR test, Health Ministry official Mohammad Mehdi Gooya has said.

In case a traveler has not injected both doses of the vaccine, he or she will be tested and quarantined, if necessary, IRNA quoted Gooya as saying on Saturday.

“The cold season is approaching. Considering that schools and universities are reopened, infection cases will increase as the sixth wave of the disease is near, while public vaccination has not been completed,” he explained.

The Ministry of Health has announced that the Delta virus has been found everywhere in the country, and given that the virus is very highly contagious, it can increase the rate of hospitalizations and transmission.

Currently, 22 cities are in the high-risk red zones (the highest category on Iran’s coronavirus risk scale), and 128 cities are in the orange zones, 215 cities are in the yellow zones, and 83 cities are in the blue zones.

That is while, deputy tourism minister Ali-Asghar Shalbafian said on Sunday that the country has reopened its borders to foreign tourists as of October 23 based on the new conditions prevailing in the country after crossing the fifth wave of the pandemic, increasing vaccinations, and at the request of the tourism ministry.

Over 750,000 passengers screened for coronavirus at borders

A total of 750,164 passengers have so far been screened for coronavirus by thermal tests at the country's official borders since March 10, Mehdi Valipour, head of Relief and Rescue Organization affiliated to the Iranian Red Crescent Society (IRCS), said on Monday.

During the aforesaid period, IRCS forces have conducted 91,058 PCR tests and 117,121 rapid tests, he added, IRNA reported.

He went on to say that some 213 individuals, who tested positive, have so far been temporarily quarantined, under a plan to rapidly identify suspected cases of coronavirus and prevent the spread of the disease.

A total of 471 members of the IRCS cooperate for carrying out the plan in 16 provinces across the country, Valipour concluded.

With the cooperation of ministries of health and transport, a plan is being implemented with the goal of rapidly identifying and testing incoming passengers and keeping them in quarantine facilities, if necessary.

Twenty-eight border checkpoints have been selected, including 18 land borders, nine air borders, and three sea borders, all incoming passengers will be tested and referred to the quarantine facilities in case of necessity.

Around 8,000 individuals enter the country via borders on a daily basis.

MG