TEHRAN (Iran News) – Deputy Health Minister Alireza Raeisi on Monday warned of a setback in efforts to contain the novel coronavirus unless health protocols are observed more closely.

The southwestern province of Khuzestan has become the new focal point of Iran’s COVID-19 outbreak with authorities reimposing strict measures to halt its spread.

“We have regressed in Khuzestan due to the increase in hospitalizations and not observing health protocols,” Raeisi said in televised remarks.

“This can happen to any other province if we are not careful,” he added, noting that tighter measures would be reimposed in other places too if needed.

So far, 90 percent of the population of around 78 million people have been screened for infection symptoms, he reported, adding that the deployment of as many as 400 outpatient diagnosis facilities has remarkably eased pressure on hospitals amid the outbreak.

According to Raeisi, health protocols have been defined for as many as 130,000 professions, while authorities have either closed down or issued caveats for 210,000 businesses, which were found in violation of preventive measures.

He warned that the outbreak could rebound and reverse the country’s achievements if the public assumed that conditions had already normalized, adding there were still no “risk-free” areas across the country.

Authorities have shut down state bodies, banks, and non-essential businesses again in nine of Khuzestan’s counties.

Government spokesman Ali Rabiei said “less than 50 percent” of Khuzestan residents have observed health protocols.

“We’ve seen a rising trend of infection and death (in Khuzestan) which shows protocols and social distancing are not being observed,” he said in a televised news conference.

The Health Ministry stopped publishing provincial figures for the coronavirus last month.

National television aired images on Monday showing many maskless residents of the capital out and about.

Some of those interviewed explained that they now felt the weather was too hot to wear masks, while others thought the heat could kill the virus.

Raeisi also rejected the US claims that it has enabled the establishment of a sanctions-free channel for the transfer of medicine to the Islamic Republic.

“The US holds the world record in lying,” he said.

“Their claim about the existence of a channel for the transfer of medicinal items is false,” he added.

The official noted that under circumstances wherein thousands of people are losing their lives around the world due to the new coronavirus pandemic every day, keeping a country under sanctions “lacks any justification.”

Iran has won a case against the US at the International Court of Justice that obliges Washington to exempt food and medicine from the sanctions it illegally and unilaterally reimposed in 2018. The US government alleges that it has spared those items, a claim that Tehran dismisses as untrue.

Raeisi explained that the sanctions were also preventing the country from using its own overseas’ assets toward battling the virus and prohibiting foreign-based Iranians from sending aid to the Islamic Republic.

He, however, hailed Iran’s performance in the face of the outbreak given that the country had earmarked only around $1 billion for battling the virus, compared to the roughly $114 billion that the United States has set aside for fighting the pandemic.

Death toll declining

Health Ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour conformed 45 new COVID-19 deaths, the lowest number of fatalities since March 10.

The new fatalities brought to 6,685 the overall confirmed death toll in Iran.

He also said that 1,683 new COVID-19 cases were confirmed in the past 24 hours, raising the total to 109,286.

Out of those hospitalized, 87,422 have recovered so far while 2,703 were in critical condition.

Iranian police have shut 1,300 websites and arrested 320 people accused of spreading rumors about the virus.

They were accused of “disturbing public opinion”, IRNA said.

Eight states waiting for Iran kits

Mehdi Qale’noei, a deputy head of the Iranian president’s office for scientific affairs, said Iranian test kits used to determine the rate of immunity against the new coronavirus are becoming increasingly popular as several more countries are placing bulk orders for the diagnostic tools.

Qale’noei said on Sunday that Iranian companies are set to export serological test kits to eight more countries after a first successful shipment was made to Germany earlier this week.

He said the export of two types of coronavirus test kits to the Philippines and Pakistan was waiting for approval from the local authorities after Iranian companies supplying the diagnostic tools sent sample kits to laboratories in those countries.

He said exports to India, Nigeria, and Armenia will begin once travel restrictions over the new coronavirus are eased.

The official said Qatar, Georgia, and Syria will soon be included in the list of export destinations for the Iranian test kits.

The announcement comes several days after Iran sent the first batch of serological test kits to Germany, a country where authorities are trying to deploy the tests on a massive scale to detect the rate of immunity against COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus.

AFP and Press TV contributed to this story.