Iran’s daily COVID-19 deaths and cases continued to reflect a declining trend during the 24-hour period to Friday, dropping to 154 and 6,470 respectively, according to the Health Ministry.
The figures stood at 172 and 6,772 on Thursday.
The Iranian Health Ministry announced in a statement on Friday that the total COVID-19 deaths and infections since the beginning of the outbreak in the country in late February 2020 stand at 137,593 and 7,080,217, respectively.
It said 4,056 people are in critical condition, and 1,275 new patients have been hospitalized.
According to the statement, so far 6,709,131 people have either recovered or been discharged from hospitals, and 47,571,202 diagnostic tests have been carried out in the country.
By Friday, 63,042,542 Iranians had received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, including 55,650,128, who had taken two jabs, and 23,647,756 who had received the third, booster shot, bringing the total number of administered doses to 142,340,426.
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.
Top Iranian officials and health authorities say the country is past the peak of the sixth wave’s deaths and infections.
Last week, Health Minister Bahram Einollahi announced the news and one day later, President Seyyed Ebrahim Raeisi confirmed it.
In remarks on Sunday, Dr. Masoud Mardani, a member of the National Task Force for Fighting the Coronavirus, also said based on field observations, the number of people referred to medical centers across the country with COVID-19 symptoms had witnessed a 50 percent decline, IRNA reported.
He added the country’s COVID hospitalizations were also decreasing.
Mardani pointed out that the number of Iranian cities coded red (very high-risk) in terms of the coronavirus spread had dropped to 184.
The fifth wave of infections in the country had been triggered mainly due to the spread of the Delta variant. During the wave, Iran saw daily fatalities and cases of above 700 and 40,000. The greater momentum of public vaccination under the Raeisi administration helped restore relative calm to the country at that time.
Iran has developed a number of COVID vaccines domestically and imported several doses.
A few days ago, it was announced that Iranian experts at Barakat Foundation had managed to develop a new COVID-19 vaccine highly effective against the Omicron variant.