Iran records over 1,000 Covid-19 cases for first time since April

Iran's daily recorded coronavirus cases on Monday exceeded 1,000 for the first time since late April, according to the country's health ministry.

Authorities recorded 1,007 new cases within 24 hours on Monday, with 122 of the new patients needing to be hospitalised. This was the first time over 1,000 cases had been recorded since 27 April.

In recent weeks, daily cases in Iran have rarely exceeded 200, with some days seeing less than 100 infections.

The total number of identified coronavirus cases in Iran since the start of the pandemic in February 2020 is 7,240,564, and a total of 141,404 people have died from Covid-19.

Health experts in Iran have warned that two fast-spreading sub-variants of the Omicron variant of coronavirus will become the most common strains in the country in the coming weeks.

At the start of the pandemic, Iran became the epicentre of cases in the Middle East.

Last week, the World Health Organization warned that the number of new coronavirus cases worldwide rose by 18% in the last week, with more than 4.1 million cases reported globally.

The UN health agency said in its latest weekly report on the pandemic that the worldwide number of deaths remained relatively similar to the week before, at about 8,500.

Covid-related deaths increased in three regions: the Middle East, Southeast Asia and the Americas.

The biggest weekly rise in new Covid-19 cases was seen in the Middle East, where a 47% increase was recorded, according to the report released late on Wednesday. Infections rose by about 32% in Europe and Southeast Asia, and by about 14% in the Americas, the WHO said.

Agencies contributed to this report.