Despite national lockdowns and a concerted effort to bring coronavirus infections down in the country, Iran is currently experiencing a peak in daily deaths with an average 200 coronavirus-related deaths a day.

Health Ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari said July 23 that there had been 221 confirmed coronavirus-related deaths in the previous 24 hours, pushing Iran’s total death toll from the virus over 15,000. Lari said that in the previous 24 hours there had been 2,621 new cases in the country, with 2,004 of those hospitalized. The high rate of hospitalization could suggest a number of factors, such as that those with less severe symptoms are opting not to be tested at a public clinic and self-isolating and thus not being counted in the official numbers of total cases.

After Iran shut the nation down in late March and early April, the country’s daily coronavirus deaths dropped below three digits in mid-April. However, given the economic pressures facing the country, the country gradually opened back up and has been experiencing 200 daily deaths on average for the past 10 days. 

Due to the high number of cases, Iran has labeled 12 of its 31 provinces as red "high risk" zones, meaning the provinces must take more restrictive measures and follow strict social distancing guidelines. The red-zone provinces of Mazandaran, Fars, East Azerbaijan, West Azerbaijan, Khorasan Razavi, Alborz, Khuzestan, Lorestan, Gholestan, Kerman, Zanjan and Elam. There are 13 provinces classified as orange "alarm" zones, including Tehran, Esfahan, Bushehr, Hormozghan and Ghazvin.