Iran tightens Covid curbs as cases surge

The Islamic republic is struggling to contain what officials have called a "fifth wave" of the virus driven by the highly infectious Delta variant.

Hit by the Middle East's deadliest outbreak, Iran has officially recorded more than 97,000 deaths and over 4.38 million infections, with numbers breaking daily records.

Iran's national coronavirus taskforce announced that government offices, banks and non-essential businesses must close their doors countrywide from Monday until the end of next Saturday.

A ban on car travel between provinces will be in force from Sunday until August 27, taskforce spokesman Alireza Raisi told IRNA state news agency.

Authorities have recently tried to speed up the country's inoculation campaign. More than 14.7 million people have received a first vaccine dose, but only 3.8 million have received the required second jab, the health ministry said Saturday.

In addition to China's Sinopharm, Iran is also administering Russia's Sputnik V, India's Bharat Biotech and the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccines, according to the health ministry. Authorities have approved the emergency use of two locally made vaccines as well.

President Ebrahim Raisi said that Iran needed an addition 60 million vaccine doses to "control the unfavorable coronavirus situation", according to the government's website.

Raisi told a Covid-19 taskforce meeting on Saturday that 30 million doses would be imported and made available "in a short time".

Choked by US sanctions that have made it difficult to transfer money abroad, Iran has said that it has struggled to import vaccines.