The latest:
Iran says it will impose a six-day “general lockdown” in cities across the country after being hit by what it describes as its fifth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, state media reported Saturday.
The lockdown includes all bazaars, markets and public offices, as well as movie theatres, gyms and restaurants in all Iranian cities.
The lockdown will begin on Monday and last through next Saturday.
The national coronavirus task force, which issued the decision, also ordered a travel ban between all Iranian cities from Sunday to Friday.
Also on Saturday, Iran reported 466 deaths and 29,700 new cases of coronavirus patients in a single day. That brought the total pandemic death toll to 97,208 and total confirmed cases to 4,389,085.
Last week, Iran hit a record in both its single-day death toll and confirmed new cases of COVID-19, with 42,541 new coronavirus cases and a daily death toll of 588.
Iran is struggling to vaccinate its people against the pandemic. Like much of the world, it remains far behind countries such as the United States in vaccinations, with only 3.8 million of its more than 80 million people having received both vaccine doses.
Many front-line medical workers have been vaccinated with Iran’s locally produced shots or the Chinese state-backed Sinopharm vaccine, which may be less effective than other inoculations.
Iran’s government announced that its homemade vaccine provides 85 per cent protection from the coronavirus, without disclosing data or details. Iran also imports Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine, as well as the AstraZeneca-Oxford shot through the United Nations-backed COVAX program.
So far, authorities have avoided imposing heavy-handed rules on a population badly equipped to bear them. Iran, which has suffered the worst virus outbreak in the region, is reeling from a series of crises: tough U.S. sanctions, global isolation, a heat wave, the worst blackouts in recent memory and ongoing protests over water and electricity shortages.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has final say on all state matters, in January slammed shut any possibility of American or British vaccines entering the country, calling them “forbidden.”
For now, the majority of Iranians receiving vaccines rely on foreign-made shots. A Health Ministry spokesperson said that Iran could import Western vaccines “as long as they’re not produced in the U.S. or Britain.”
What’s happening in Canada
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Alberta is walking back its timeline to change more COVID-19 restrictions. The province’s chief medical officer says it’s too soon to remove isolation requirements and testing after hearing weeks of public outcry. 2:04
What’s happening around the world
As of Saturday morning, more than 206.3 million cases of COVID-19 had been reported around the world, according to the coronavirus tracker maintained by U.S.-based Johns Hopkins University. The reported global death toll stood at more than 4.3 million.
In the Asia-Pacific region, Australia’s most populous state reported a daily record 466 new locally acquired COVID-19 infections on Saturday and increased fines for breaches of pandemic restrictions.
Four people had died overnight, bringing the death toll in New South Wales from an outbreak of the delta variant first detected in Sydney in mid-June to 42.
New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian said fines for breaking pandemic rules such as breaching quarantine orders had been increased from 1,000 Australian dollars ($923 Cdn) to AU$5,000 ($4,613). Sydney residents will be restricted to within five kilometres of home, half the distance they were previously allowed.
The government later announced that all of New South Wales would be locked down from 5 p.m. until Aug. 22. Sydney has been in lockdown since June 26, 10 days after the first delta case was detected.
In the Americas, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey on Friday issued a state of emergency as hospitals face a surge in COVID-19 cases. Of the state’s 1,567 intensive care unit beds, 689 were filled with COVID-19 patients and just 39 were empty, tying a record low for available ICU beds.
Ivey issued a limited state of emergency aimed at giving medical providers flexibility on staffing and capacity decisions and easier shipment of emergency equipment and supplies. The Republican governor stressed she would not be issuing any closure orders or mask mandates.
Meanwhile, Oregon’s governor said she will deploy up to 1,500 National Guard troops to hospitals around the state, which have warned they are near capacity, to support health-care workers.
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As a fourth wave of COVID-19 nears, U.S. regulators are suggesting third vaccine shots for the immunocompromised, and Ontario is eyeing a plan for booster shots. 2:03
In Europe, Norway’s government will end some restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic, it said on Friday, but stopped short of announcing a full reopening of the economy.
The government in April launched a four-step plan to gradually remove most pandemic restrictions and had completed the first three of those steps by mid-June. It had been set to introduce the fourth step in its reopening plan last month but twice postponed the decision because of concerns about the delta variant.
While some measures will now be relaxed, allowing universities to proceed with in-person teaching, for instance, other restrictions will remain until early September, Health Minister Bent Hoeie said.
Measures that will be kept in place include bars and restaurants being limited to table service, limits of 20 people at gatherings in private homes and restrictions on adult recreational sports.
In Africa, Morocco received a shipment of 600,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine as it expands its inoculation campaign to younger people following a surge in cases, said Said Afif, a member of the Health Ministry’s scientific committee.
