Iran warns of ‘rising trend’ in new infections as total virus cases top 100,000

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran warns of a “rising trend” in its coronavirus outbreak as it says 1,680 new infections took its overall caseload beyond the 100,000 mark.

The Islamic Republic has struggled to contain the Middle East’s deadliest COVID-19 outbreak since announcing its first cases in mid-February.

Concerns were raised last month about the threat of a “second wave” of the virus in a report by parliament that criticized the government’s slow response.

“We are witnessing a rising trend in the past three or four days, which is significant,” health ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour tells a televised news conference.

The rise is “based on our behavior, especially in the past two weeks, considering that a part of society has apparently had a change of attitude,” he adds.

The newly reported infections bring the country’s overall number of confirmed cases to 101,650.

On Saturday, Iran’s official tally of daily infections hit its lowest level since March 10, but cases have picked up again since then.

The health ministry’s Jahanpour says the spike in cases could be due to an increase in movement across cities and unnecessary travel.

Iran has allowed a phased return to work to revitalize its economy since April 11 and reopened mosques in parts of the country deemed to be at low risk.

Jahanpour also reports 78 new COVID-19 fatalities in the past 24 hours for the country whose virus death toll has also been creeping up since Sunday.

This brings to 6,418 the total number of fatalities officially recorded in Iran since February 19, when it announced its first two deaths in the Shiite holy city of Qom.

— AFP