Iran witnesses new record high in COVID-19 fatalities as cases continue to soar

Iran's health ministry spokesperson has informed that the Islamic Republic witnessed a record single-day high in COVID-19 death with 251 cases on Sunday, October 11. As per reports, Sima Sadat Lari said that the total fatalities due to coronavirus has climbed up to 28,544, making Iran the worst-hit country in the Middle East. In addition to this, the previous daily high for deaths stood at 239. 

READ: Trump Issues Stern Warning To Iran During 'radio Rally' Ahead Of US Election 2020

3,822 new COVID cases

As per reports, the health officials recorded 3,822 new COVID-19 positive cases within the last 24 hours taking up the total tally of infections to 500,075. In addition, the head of Iran's atomic energy organisation was among the new COVID-19 cases in the country. 

According to the reports, the Iranian government imposed strict lockdowns and ensuring health safety protocols such as wearing masks and maintaining social distance which has had an adverse effect on its economy. Iran has been slapped with US sanctions that effectively bar the nation from selling its oil in the global market which has plunged its currency to a record low. 

READ: Iran Accuses US Of Conspiring To Starve People By Targeting Channels Of Food, Medicine

Meanwhile, the United States has targeted Iran’s financial sector by announcing fresh sanctions on 18 major Iranian banks as Washington intensifies its “maximum pressure” campaign ahead of November elections. The US State Department said that the new set of sanctions was aimed at choking off the funds used to carry out “its support for terrorist activities and nuclear extortion.”

Slapping Iran with the new sanctions, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei of ignoring the request of the health ministry to increase the spending amid public health crisis, and instead funding the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps forces “that terrorise the Iranian people every single day.”

In response to the new sanctions, Tehran accused Washington of playing a conspiracy to starve a population amid the pandemic by blocking the remaining channels to pay for food and medicine. Iran’s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif took to Twitter to denounce the new sweeping sanctions as “latest of cruelties”, adding that the culprits and enablers of such acts “will face justice.”

READ: US Imposes Fresh Sanctions On 18 Iranian Banks To Intensify 'maximum Pressure' Campaign

READ: Iran-backed Militias Offer Truce For US Troop Withdrawal

Image/Inputs: AP