TEHRAN – Some 30,000 medical staff will be recruited to strengthen the healthcare system to effectively fight against the coronavirus pandemic, Health Ministry spokesperson Sima-Sadat Lari has said.

She also stated that 60 to 70 percent of the staff is expected to be among nurses.

According to the statistics of the Nursing Organization, about 140,000 nurses are employed in the country’s hospitals. About 60,000 nurses have been diagnosed with COVID-19 and 100 nurses have died from the disease so far.

There are 0.8 nurses per hospital bed in the country, but according to international standards, there should be at least two nurses per bed, Ahmad Nejatian, director of international affairs of the Nursing Organization, told the Tehran Times on December 19.

Also, according to the population index, the country needs three nurses per bed, he also said.

Maryam Hazrati, the deputy health minister for nursing, said in May that some 65 percent of 200,000 nurses in the country were at the forefront of the coronavirus fight.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has praised the Iranian nurses for playing an effective role in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic during the 8th “Triad Meeting” of the International Council of Nurses (ICN), the International Confederation of Midwives (ICM), and the WHO which was held online on June 16-18.

COVID-19 death toll, new cases 

In a press briefing on Saturday, Lari confirmed 5,760 new cases of COVID-19 infection, raising the total number of infections to 1,194,963. She added that 942,548 patients have so far recovered, but 5,273 still remain in critical conditions of the disease.

During the past 24 hours, 134 patients have lost their lives, bringing the total number of deaths to 54,574, she added.

So far, 7,354,931 COVID-19 diagnostic tests have been performed in the country.

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