Iran earmarks $4 mln in extra funding for setting up field hospitals in COVID-hit city
The Iranian government has allocated nearly $4 million in emergency funding to setting up two field hospitals in the city of Zahedan near the border with Pakistan where coronavirus cases have surged in recent days.
In a decree issued on Monday, head of Iran’s Plan and Budget Organization (PBO) Mohammad Bagher Nobakht ordered the allocation of the 1 trillion rials to Zahedan’s medical university for launching the two hospitals.
The hospitals will be dedicated to patients suffering from respiratory problems, according to Nobakht, a deputy Iranian president.
It comes amid reports from Zahedan showing there has been a surge in the number of infections with the highly contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus.
The variant, first detected in India, has been circulating in many countries around the world. It has caused a surge in infections in southeastern Iran, especially in the province of Sistan and Baluchestan which has a long border with Pakistan.
Local authorities said on Monday that the daily death toll from the virus in the province had reached 18 while total confirmed cases had surge to over 1,600 over the past 24 hours.
A video released by the IRIB News showed people waiting in Zahedan’s mortuary to have their diseased buried.
Iranian government authorities have warned that the Delta variant could spread fast to other parts of the country causing a fifth wave of infections more than 15 months after the coronavirus pandemic hit Iran.
A nationwide vaccination campaign against the coronavirus is gaining momentum with the introduction of jabs produced inside Iran.
Health authorities said two home-made vaccines approved for emergency use would roll out this week.
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