Iran Coronavirus Death Toll Surpasses 12,000

Deaths caused by the novel coronavirus in Iran crossed the 12,000 threshold on Wednesday, less than five months into the pandemic, as authorities scrambled to curb the spread of the contagion.

With 153 additional fatalities, Iran's total count reached 12,084 and confirmed cases rose beyond 248,000, up by some 2,690 a day earlier, Sima Sadat Lari, spokeswoman for the Health Ministry, was quoted as saying by ISNA.

Tehran Province was especially a talking point on Wednesday as local authorities argued in favor of the return of strict lockdown measures.

Head of the province's coronavirus taskforce, Alireza Zali, stressed, "We believe that strict restrictions should be reimposed, even for a short period of time, to give a brief respite to healthcare providers."

The region's overwhelmed hospitals have stoked fears of a disaster as infections continue to rise. On the sidelines of the government's Cabinet meeting, Tehran's Governor-General Anoushirvan Mohseni Bandpey said, "To us, Tehran's status is 'red'."

The province is currently in an "alarming" state, one level below "red", which marks regions with the highest virus transmission rates based on a government classification.

Bandpey warned, "If Tehran reaches a point of crisis, it will be very hard to contain it." Tehran's status has been declared as alarming since July 1.  

Some 1.87 million coronavirus tests have been carried out in Iran by laboratories equipped with testing kits designed to detect the disease. Over 209,000 have recovered and 3,300 are occupying intensive care unit beds.