Mortality from Covid-19 reached a new milestone on Tuesday August 24 in Iran, which is struggling to contain the spread of the virus, with more than 700 deaths in 24 hours, according to official data.
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The country most affected by the pandemic in the Near and Middle East, Iran is facing what is presented as a "
fifth wave
" of the disease, fueled by the Delta variant, which is particularly contagious.
According to the health ministry, 709 patients have died from the disease in the past 24 hours, while the previous record was set at 684 dead on Sunday.
The fight against the virus, a "first priority"
In total, the pandemic has killed 103,357 out of 4,756,394 people infected in Iran, according to the Ministry of Health.
By the admission of several Iranian officials, these statistics greatly underestimate the number of deaths and cases.
By presenting his government to Parliament on Saturday, before a vote of confidence scheduled for Wednesday, the new Iranian president, Ebrahim Raïssi, announced that he wanted to make the fight against the virus his first priority, before the recovery of the country's economy, undermined by US sanctions against the Islamic Republic.
Removal of restrictions
Iran was one of the first countries hit by the epidemic after China.
Since the announcement of the first cases, the authorities have never decreed general or even local confinement of the population, acting piecemeal by imposing variable restrictions in their duration as in their extent.
Life resumed almost normal Sunday after the lifting of restrictions imposed for six days nationwide and including the closure of all administrations, banks and non-essential economic activities.
A ban on private car travel from one province to another remains in effect until August 27.
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Tehran regularly accuses US sanctions, which isolate the Islamic Republic from the international financial system, of hampering its efforts to import vaccines. According to official data, less than 6.5 million of the country's approximately 83 million inhabitants have received two doses of anti-Covid vaccines.