Iran Sees Rising Daily COVID-19 Cases Again... 2,100 New Cases in One Day

Iranian firefighters wearing masks are conducting disinfection work on the streets of Tehran to prevent the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19). [Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Chunhee Lee] The recent increase in confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) in Iran, which had slowed down, is now rising sharply again.

On the 15th (local time), the Iranian Ministry of Health announced that the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases reached 116,635, an increase of 2,102 from the previous day, as of noon.

This is the first time in 38 days since the 7th of last month that Iran's daily new confirmed cases have exceeded 2,000. Since the end of last month, the daily new confirmed cases had dropped below 1,000, suggesting that the spread of COVID-19 was calming down. However, after the Iranian government partially eased business and movement restrictions, the daily number of confirmed cases began to rise again.

Considering that Iran has maintained around 14,000 daily COVID-19 tests recently, the recent increase is estimated to be due to a rise in community infections rather than an increase in testing. In fact, the positivity rate among daily tests on this day was 14.2%, the highest since 14.3% on the 6th.

The Iranian health authorities pointed out, "Cluster infections have occurred mainly in border areas such as Khuzestan and North Khorasan provinces," and "residents in these areas are not properly following social distancing and hygiene guidelines.

As of the 15th, the number of deaths due to COVID-19 in Iran increased by 48 to 6,902. The fatality rate stands at 5.9%. With the rise in confirmed cases, the recovery rate, which had exceeded 80%, has dropped to 78.7%.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.