Iran imposes 10 day lockdown amid new virus wave

Iran on Saturday enforced a ten-day lockdown as the president officially acknowledged a fourth wave of the coronavirus spreading across the country.

The National Coronavirus Combat Taskforce, a body in charge of making decisions regarding virus restrictions, ordered the closure of all parks, restaurants, beauty salons, malls and bookstores in 257 cities.

Over 85% of the country is in a designated "red" or "orange" zone, with the toughest restrictions in place.

Iranian officials said the daily death toll from COVID-19 rose by 155, putting the country's total at 64,039 as of Friday.

Health Ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari said 22,478 new confirmed cases were registered since a day earlier, bringing Iran's total in the pandemic to 2,029,412.

At least 2,567 people were hospitalized with the virus, she added.

The country is grappling with a spike following the Persian New Year or Nowruz holiday, the nation's biggest holiday which drove millions to travel to the Caspian coast and other popular vacation spots, pack markets and congregate in homes for parties in defiance of government health guidelines.

There appears to be no respite in sight, as the country's vaccine rollout lags, with only some 200,000 vaccine doses administered, according to the World Health Organization.

COVAX, an international collaboration to deliver the vaccine equitably across the world, delivered its first shipment to Iran on Monday from the Netherlands containing 700,000 Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine doses.

Authorities have done little to enforce the restrictions and repeatedly resisted a nationwide lockdown to salvage an economy already devastated by tough U.S. sanctions. A year into the pandemic, public fatigue and intransigence has deepened.

President Rouhani said several factors played a role in the rising number of cases, but the prime culprit was the U.K. variant of the virus that entered from Iraq, which shares a 1,280 kilometer-long border with Iran.

Earlier this year, the country kicked off its coronavirus inoculation campaign, administering a limited number of Russian Sputnik V vaccines to medical workers.