Fears grow that omicron variant may soon engulf Iran
A rapid outbreak of omicron, the most recent coronavirus variant, has health officials in Iran calling for severe restrictions once again.
A senior Iranian health official warned that unless measures are tightened it will only be a few weeks before the new coronavirus variant, omicron, dominates the country.
Hamid-Reza Jama’ati, who chairs the scientific committee of the National Coronavirus Taskforce, advised the Iranian government to reinstate strict measures for at least four weeks to curb the new variant. Those restrictions, according to Jama’ati, should include a full closure on schools, universities, restaurants, hotels and family gatherings.
Over the weekend, the Health Ministry said it had identified the first omicron case in an Iranian national returning from the United Arab Emirates.
The announcement came as Iran sees a significant slowdown in overall coronavirus cases after the government of hard-line President Ebrahim Raisi accelerated a wide-reaching vaccination rollout that has so far seen over 50 million out of the country’s 85 million double-jabbed. Three out of four Iranians have also received at least one dose of the vaccine.
