A woman wearing a face mask crosses a street in Tehran, Iran, Nov. 17, 2020. (Photo by Ahmad Halabisaz/Xinhua)
TEHRAN, Dec. 25 (Xinhua) -- Iran on Saturday announced the decision to close its land borders with neighboring countries for 15 days to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 variant of Omicron.
Ruhollah Latifi, spokesman for Iran's Customs, said Iran's land borders with Turkey, Iraq, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Pakistan and Armenia are closed for half a month from Saturday.
Iran's Health Ministry on Saturday reported 1,121 new COVID-19 cases, raising the country's total infections to 6,182,905.
The pandemic also claimed 42 lives in the past 24 hours, taking the death toll to 131,348, according to the ministry.
A total of 6,024,211 people have recovered from the disease or been discharged from hospitals across the country, while 2,781 remain in intensive care units, it said.
By Saturday, 59,464,524 Iranians have received their first vaccine doses, 51,096,388 two jabs, and 5,478,443 in the country third booster shots.
A total of 41,388,312 tests have so far been carried out across the country.
On Dec. 19, Iran detected the first Omicron case in a traveller who returned from the United Arab Emirates. ■
