TEHRAN – A special clinic will be opened for the first time in the country to provide free psychological services to families who have lost their loved ones during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The clinic is called “Soog” (literally meaning mourn) will be inaugurated at Shahid Beheshti Educational and Medical Center in Zanjan province on Wednesday.

The outbreak of coronavirus has changed the lifestyle of many families, Ehsan Fakoor, head of the mental health department of Zanjan University of Medical Sciences said.

Sudden changes in life cause stress, while the coronavirus itself has doubled the stress due to its contagion and the number of lives it has claimed in the world to date, he regretted.

COVID-19 toll hits records high

In the press briefing on Monday, Health Ministry spokesperson Sima-Sadat Lari confirmed 4,206 new cases of COVID-19 infection, raising the total number of infections to 504,281. She added that 409,121 patients have so far recovered, but 4,533 still remain in critical conditions of the disease.

In the past 24 hours, 272 patients have lost their lives, bringing the total number of deaths to 28,816, she added.

Lari noted that so far 4,340,831 COVID-19 tests have been conducted across the country.

She said the high-risk “red” zones include provinces of Tehran, Isfahan, Qom, East Azerbaijan, South Khorasan, Semnan, Qazvin, Lorestan, Ardabil, Khuzestan, Kermanshah, Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad, Gilan, Bushehr, Zanjan, Ilam, Khorasan Razavi, Mazandaran, Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari, Alborz, West Azerbaijan, Markazi, Kerman, North Khorasan, Hamedan and Yazd.

The provinces of Kordestan, Hormozgan, Fars, and Golestan are also on alert.

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