Alarm in Iran as pandemic numbers shoot back up
Iranian officials are talking about a fourth wave of the coronavirus pandemic with infections more than doubling since last week and hospitals in Tehran near capacity.
Iran is currently fighting a fourth wave of the pandemic, according to its health authorities, who announce horrifying rates on a daily basis. As of April 6, the number of cities under a red alert hit 88, marking a sudden jump from 47 only two days before.
One of the latest members of the red zone is the capital Tehran. Of the city’s 175 hospitals, 173 are dealing with COVID-19 patients, whose population has grown by 100% since last week, fueling fears that it’s a matter of weeks, if not days, before hospitals are overwhelmed.
Since the outbreak of the disease last February, over 90,000 Iranian nurses battling the pandemic on the poorly equipped front lines have been infected by the virus.
The rates have largely been blamed on an easily transmissible new mutation, which was first identified in the United Kingdom last December. Iranian authorities frequently refer to it as the “British virus.”
