Health Official: Iran Virus Death Toll Climbs Above 24,000

Iran

September 19th, 11:12am

Asharq Al-Awsat

FILE PHOTO: Test tube with the coronavirus name label is seen in this illustration taken on January 29, 2020. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic

Iran's coronavirus death toll has risen by 166 to 24,118, a health ministry spokeswoman told state TV on Saturday. The total number of identified cases spiked by 2,845 in the last 24 hours to 419,043 in Iran, one of the Middle East's worst-hit countries, spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari was quoted as saying. Deputy health minister Iraj Harirchi declared on Friday a coronavirus red alert covering the entire country. "The color classification doesn't make sense anymore. We no longer have orange and yellow. The entire country is red," Harirchi said on television. "If the current course continues, the death toll will reach 45,000," he added, without giving a time frame.

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