Daily COVID cases surpass 3,000, deaths at 34: Ministry

The Iranian Health Ministry announced on Monday the country’s daily COVID-19 fatalities and infections stood at 34 and 3,125, respectively.

The total COVID-19 deaths and infections since the beginning of the outbreak in the country stand at 140,650 and 7,194,768, respectively.

The ministry said ‎1,487 people are in critical condition, and 433 new patients have been hospitalized.

According to the statement, 6,922,629 people have so far either recovered or have been discharged from hospitals and over 50 million coronavirus diagnostic tests have been carried out across the country.

By Monday, 64,096,175 Iranians had received their first dose of the COVID-19 ‎vaccine, including 57,190,725, who had taken two jabs, and 26,571,938 who had received the booster shot, bringing the total number of administered doses to 147,858,838

On December 19, Iran reported its first case of the COVID-19 Omicron variant. The spread of the new strain sparked the sixth wave of infections in the country, as it soon became the prevailing variant. Unlike the fifth wave caused by the spread of the Delta variant, the number of daily deaths in Iran did not witness any significant rise during the sixth wave on the back of the widespread public vaccination although daily cases reached over 39,000.

Top Iranian officials and health authorities earlier announced the country is past the peak of the sixth wave’s deaths and infections.