Iran: Health workers 'exhausted' by coronavirus pandemic

Iran pleaded with its citizens to observe social distancing guidelines more closely as the pandemic takes its toll on exhausted medical staff, i24 News reports.

On Sunday, Iran reported 216 more deaths from killer COVID-19.

Health Ministry spokesperson Sima Sadat Lari expressed concern for the welfare Iran’s medical staff.

She said in a statement: “Our biggest concerns are the infection and fatigue of medical staff. We can help them and prevent the spread of the disease by observing basic guidelines such as hand-washing, mask-wearing and social distancing.”

Sunday’s numbers bring Iranian deaths from the deadly disease to 15,700 in total, although international critics of the regime have claimed the toll could be far higher than reported by the Iranian government.

READ: Iran urges citizens to ‘change their habits’ to confront COVID-19

According to the Iranian Health Ministry, in the month of July some 5,000 health workers have becoming infected with the disease, and around 140 have lost their lives.

Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani claimed that around 25 million Iranians were infected with COVID-19.

Iran has been battling the disease since its first cases were announced on February 19.

The country is thus far the hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic in the Middle East region.