On June 2 last year, after reporting zero deaths from COVID-19 following two years of multiple devastating waves, Iran’s Health Minister Bahram Einollahi congratulated the nation.

Ten months on, the Middle East’s worst-hit country is grappling with the eighth wave of the coronavirus pandemic amid an alarming surge in new infections and related deaths.

Health Ministry spokesperson Pedram Pakaein on Thursday said the upsurge in COVID-19 infections in the past few weeks has fueled the new wave, causing an increase in hospital referrals.