TEHRAN – Maryam Arbabi, one of the committed teachers of Garmeh city in North Khorasan province, who was teaching on the hospital bed passed away after days of fighting coronavirus.

Worked for 22 years, Arbabi was a primary school teacher in Garmeh, who despite her illness and hospitalization in the intensive care unit and acute respiratory condition, did not stop teaching the students even in the last moments of her life.

A photo of this compassionate teacher on a hospital bed while teaching has become viral among social media users in the country these days.

All educational centers in Iran were closed in late February due to the coronavirus pandemic, but for students to keep in touch with their studies, the Ministry of Education launched a homegrown mobile application on April 9, called SHAD, providing students with distance learning programs.

Meanwhile, the third wave of the pandemic has just flared up in the country, as the new cases of coronavirus in Iran hit an all-time high. So, the officials decided to increase the restrictions and stick to e-learning schools.

COVID-19 toll surpasses 40,000

In a press briefing on Friday, Health Ministry spokesperson Sima-Sadat Lari confirmed 11,737 new cases of COVID-19 infection, raising the total number of infections to 738,322. She added that 546,642 patients have so far recovered, but 5,630 still remain in critical conditions of the disease.

During the past 24 hours, coronavirus daily deaths and new cases hit the record high, as 461 patients have lost their lives, bringing the total number of deaths to 40,582, she added.

Lari noted that so far 5,424,479 COVID-19 tests have been conducted across the country.

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

The provinces of Hormozgan, Fars, and Golestan and Sistan-Baluchestan are also on alert.

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