Iran's health ministry spokeswoman says 195 patients have died of the novel coronavirus in the past 24 hours, increasing the overall death toll to 15,484. In her press briefing on Saturday, Sima-Sadat Lari confirmed 2,316 new cases of COVID-19 infection, raising the total number of infections to 288,839. The spokeswoman said 251,319 patients have so far recovered from COVID-19, but 3,670 are still in severe conditions of the disease. She stressed that so far 2.30 million COVID-19 tests have been taken across the country. As in previous days, she said, the red zones include Mazandaran, Fars, East Azarbaijan, West Azarbaijan, Khorasan Razavi, Alborz, Khuzestan, Lorestan, Golestan, Kerman, Zanjan, and Ilam provinces. President Hassan Rohani on Thursday attributed the resurgence of the deadly virus to the many wedding ceremonies and funerals that were held following the normalization of the outbreak. During a coronavirus taskforce meeting, the president said, "Evaluations show that the spread of the second wave of the novel coronavirus was not caused by economic and social activities." Rohani's reopening of the Iranian economy more than two months ago drew a chorus of criticism when he replaced lockdown disciplines with safety guidelines devised by his health ministry. "Non-adherence to health protocols, arising from the assumption that the virus has weakened, and public gatherings such as weddings and wakes triggered another wave," he added. — Agencies
