TEHRAN – COVID tests for travelers, halted after the ease in infection, restarted due to a surge in infected cases of different countries, the Ministry of Health Spokesman has announced.

Considering the high risk of new wave and the increase in new Omicron sub strains, all travelers of land and sea entry points undergo coronavirus test, IRNA quoted Pedram Pak-Aein as saying on Tuesday.

Afghanistan, South Africa, Azerbaijan, Argentina and Brazil, are experiencing an upward trend of the disease and in Turkey and Russia, the number of infected people remained the same trend compared to the previous weeks.

One month after the spread of new corona strains in Europe, the first cases were identified in Iran, but the new BQ1 strain has not yet been observed in Iran, he said.

He further called on the people to inject the vaccine annually, especially the elderly and those with underlying diseases.

A week earlier, Behnam Arshi, head of the office of infectious diseases of the Ministry of Health warned that there is a high risk of a new coronavirus wave while the existing variants are not over yet.

Facing different strains over the last 2 years proved that coronavirus has numerous unpredictable and surprising behaviors; therefore, people should continue to prioritize compliance with health guidelines and vaccination, he explained.

Currently, the country is in a favorable condition in terms of low transmission rate so that after 26 months of fighting, the number of Covid mortality has reached less than 10 people and it claimed no lives in several days.

But recently, medical researchers announced the risk of an Omicron variant emerging in the world that is resistant to all existing therapeutic antibodies, and the findings indicate that new treatments must be identified to deal with this variant.

According to new research at a German institute, BQ1.1, is resistant to all approved antibody treatments.

Omicron escapes neutralizing antibodies and causes symptomatic disease even in vaccinated or convalescent individuals due to mutations in the spike protein. This is known as an immune escape and is dangerous for high-risk populations, including the elderly and people with weak immune systems.

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