TEHRAN – The National Headquarters for Coronavirus Control has announced a new lockdown for ten days from tomorrow as the country continues to battle a fourth wave of the coronavirus.

Under the restrictions, shopping malls, gyms, mosques, salons, universities, schools, libraries, kindergartens, cinemas, museums, cafes, zoos, and amusement parks will be closed in cities at high risk of infection, IRNA reported on Friday.

Currently, 257 cities including all provincial capital cities, are in the high-risk red zones, Alireza Raeisi, spokesman for the National Headquarters for Coronavirus control said.

The number of coronavirus cases has been rising in Iran after the two-week Noruz holidays, which officially began on March 20.

The country has hit a new coronavirus infection record, reporting over 22,000 daily new cases.

The UK variant now has spread widely across the country to an extent that no provinces have been spared from it, Massoud Mardani, a member of the National Headquarters for Coronavirus Control, said.

New cases and mortalities

In a press briefing on Friday, Health Ministry’s spokesperson Sima-Sadat Lari confirmed 22,478 new cases of COVID-19 infection, raising the total number of infections to 2,029,412. She added that 1,693,005 patients have so far recovered, but 4,278 remain in critical conditions of the disease.

During the past 24 hours, 155 patients have lost their lives, bringing the total number of deaths to 64,039, she added.

So far, 13,494,296 COVID-19 diagnostic tests have been performed in the country.

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