Iran Hits New Coronavirus Record as Lockdown Returns to Tehran

(Bloomberg) -- Iran set a fresh record for daily coronavirus cases for the third time this week, reporting 4,151 new infections overnight, the country’s Health Ministry said.

The Islamic Republic, which is battling the Middle East’s worst coronavirus outbreak, reported 227 deaths from the disease since Monday, Health Ministry spokeswoman Sina Sadat Lari said. Some 479,825 cases and 27,419 fatalities have been reported so far.

Lari said all but one of Iran’s 31 provinces have been declared “red zones” and officials in Tehran have warned that the capital and its surrounding province are seeing a major spike in cases and face a serious shortage of hospital beds.

Various lockdown measures first adopted in March were reinstated on Saturday, including school and mosque closures. Wearing masks in public will be mandatory from Oct. 10, Iraj Harirchi, deputy health minister said, the Islamic Republic News Agency reported.

With its finances already severely stretched and weakened by U.S. sanctions, Iran loosened lockdown measures in April in an effort to prevent its economy from collapsing.

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