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The lockdown — the nation's fifth so far — will begin on Tuesday and last until next Monday. All bazars, market places and public offices will close, as well as movie theaters, gyms and restaurants in both Tehran province and the neighboring province of Alborz.
Iran reported 25,441 new cases on Monday and 213 deaths over the past day, bringing the overall death toll to 87,374 from among more than 3.5 million confirmed cases in the pandemic.
During an earlier surge in cases, in April, Iran reported the highest daily number of cases, 25,582. At the time, its daily death tolls surged to around 400, below the grim record of 486 reached last November.
Iranian authorities have lately been warning about a new surge, fueled by the fast-spreading delta variant. In sanctions-hit Iran, which has the highest COVID-19 death toll in the Middle East, less than 2% of the population of 84 million has received both doses, mainly of the imported Russian and Chinese vaccines.
According to her, what has circulated and is circulating in autumn and winter are other strains, other viruses that are not descendants of the spring (virus).
According to her, each wave was caused by a different, new virus and have nothing to do with the spring (virus), which has disappeared. And the British mutation is already the fourth strain in a row.
“The spring virus was the first, the second in September, the third in December and the new one, the British, is the fourth. I would almost exaggerate to say that it was SARS-CoV-2 in the spring, SARS-CoV-3 in September, and SARS-CoV-4 in December until now.”
“And the British mutation should be called SARS-CoV-5. Each wave behaves clinically a little differently, the virus has a different genome, a different program, according to which it is written, “Peková specified.
“If the second or third wave came from the first, we would see the mutations that the virus picked up over time in the viruses of the second and third waves. But this is not the case. I have no idea where they came from,” Peková said.
“But it’s something else. And I don’t know where the cave they are flying from is, “the microbiologist pointed out, adding that the viruses are artificially modified according to her.
“My message has not changed since the spring: Find the cave from which it flies, close it, close its employees and its management. Many say we should prepare for another pandemic. My God, by no means. This must not set a precedent, “Peková said in an interview.
At the same time, she added that the virus does not behave at all the way natural isolates behave.
“It goes beyond everything we’ve ever seen. It’s from a bat and it’s modified to infect humans,” Peková said.
“Let’s just be vigilant, let’s continue to test and objectify what exactly is happening at a given moment,” the microbiologist emphasized.
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