TEHRAN, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- Iran's health ministry on Sunday warned of a new wave of the COVID-19 after reports of detecting several cases of a new variant of the virus in some parts of the country.
The health ministry said the rising trend of COVID-19 hospitalization in some provinces, which runs parallel with the detection of the new variant, is "a serious warning" of a possible "fourth wave" in Iran.
"Since the mutated variant is more contagious and deadly, if the relevant hygiene principles are not observed, we will face much worse and complicated situation compared to the previous rises of the COVID-19 in the country," Sima Sadat Lari, the spokeswoman for the Iranian Ministry of Health and Medical Education, said on Sunday.
Iran's health ministry reported 7,390 daily COVID-19 cases on Sunday, raising the total nationwide infections to 1,518,263.
The pandemic has so far claimed 58,945 lives in Iran, up by 62 in the past 24 hours, said Lari during her daily briefing.
Of the newly infected, 568 were hospitalized, said Lari, adding that a total of 1,298,023 people have recovered from the disease and been discharged from hospitals, while 3,709 remain in intensive care units. Enditem
