Iran’s health ministry raised on Sunday the nationwide death toll from the new coronavirus to 54 as the number of confirmed infected cases jumped overnight by more than half to 978 people.
The ministry’s spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour said new cases were confirmed in a number of cities, including Mashhad, which is home to Iran’s most important Shiite shrine that attracts pilgrims from across the region.
Calls by Iran’s civilian government to clerics to close such shrines to to the public have not been uniformly followed. The shrine in Mashhad is among those that have remained open.
The new figures represent 11 more deaths than reported on Saturday and a whopping 385 new cases of infections.
The new numbers, however, bring down the percentage of deaths to infections to around 5.5%. Still, that is much higher than other countries, suggesting the number of infections in Iran may be much higher than current figures show.
Jahanpour said in his daily briefing that the number of cases is “still inclining” across Iran.
Of the 385 newly confirmed cases, 170 are in Tehran, where schools and cinemas have remained closed for the second week. Public buses and the metro are still operating, but are being disinfected daily there.
The ministry spokesman said that 44 cases were also confirmed for the first time in the central Markazi province.
Also on Sunday, Iran’s state broadcaster said all flights to and from the city of Rasht, the capital of nothern Gilan province, had been suspended.
It gave no reasons why. The area of Gilan has some of Iran’s highest number of infections after the capital, Tehran, and the holy city of Qom, the epicenter of the virus outbreak in the country.
The Revolutionary Guard said it plans to install mobile hospitals in Qom and Rasht cities, where the virus has infected high numbers of people. The Guard has also been photographed in state media leading disinfection efforts in some cities.
Ali Reza Jalali, the head of the Guard’s medical college, told state TV that Iran is going through a “hard time and dangerous period.” He claimed the group is researching a possible vaccine for the disease.
There is currently no vaccine for the novel coronavirus. Researchers around the world are working to find one, but anything widely usable is likely more than a year away.
The illness, known as COVID-19 and that originated in central China, has infected at least seven government officials in Iran, including one of its vice presidents and a senior health ministry official.