The total number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Iran soared past one million on Thursday, less than 10 months into the pandemic, as the Health Ministry reported a decline in hospitalizations and deaths.
Iran registered a total of 1.016 million infections by Friday noon, up by 13,300 compared to a day earlier, the spokeswoman for the Health Ministry Sima Sadat Lari said.
It took eight days for the case tally to climb from 900,000 to one million in Iran as the country is going through the third wave of the outbreak.
Despite hitting the grim milestone, Covid-19 patients and deaths have declined in the past few days, with daily cases falling below 14,000 and overnight deaths going back to under 400 after nearly one month of closing dangerously to 500.
The drop has been linked to stringent measures imposed over the past few weeks throughout the country, which has decreased the number of cities on alert Level Three, or red, to only 64, from a previous 160.
Tehran is among the 96 cities that have moved from Level Three to Level Two, or orange, which eases the restrictions enforced in the capital.
According to protocols set by the National Coronavirus Taskforce, most non-essential businesses can resume operations in cities labeled orange.