TEHRAN (Iran News) – Iran’s Health Ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari said on Sunday that the average observing health protocols in the country has been declining in recent weeks.

Speaking at a daily press conference on Sunday, Lari added the use of masks by employees in industrial centers and government offices has increased, but in public transport has decreased, according to IRNA.

She called on people to further observe the health protocols in order to prevent the spread of coronavirus in the country.

Lari added that 88 counties in the country are classified as “red”, the highest level on Iran’s color-coded risk scale.

She underlined that no city in the country is free of the disease.

It has opted for a color-coded system of white for low-risk parts of the country, yellow for medium-risk and red for high-risk areas.

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Iran rose by 2,089 to 402,029, Lari said, as the country reported 128 new deaths from Saturday to Sunday.

The ministry’s spokeswoman said the official death toll stood at 23,157 in Iran, the worst-hit countries in the West Asia.

Of the new cases detected since Saturday, 956 patients have been admitted to the hospital, she added.

Among those undergoing treatment in medical centers at present, 3,791 coronavirus patients have critical health conditions, Lari noted.

At least 346,242 patients have recovered from the coronavirus infection so far or have been discharged from hospitals across Iran, the spokeswoman said.

Lari also noted that nearly 3,560,000 coronavirus diagnostic tests have been carried out in Iran so far.

Iran is contending with the deadliest pandemic the world has seen in many decades amid US sanctions, which have seriously hampered efforts to contain the outbreak.

On Sunday, President Hassan Rouhani condemned US sanctions which have obstructed Iran’s access to medicines amid the coronavirus pandemic, saying the White House knows nothing about humanity.

Rouhani slammed Washington for blocking a request by the Iranian government for a loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to combat the deadly outbreak, Press TV reported.

“We requested a $5 billion loan from the IMF and all members agreed, but America does not allow us to get the loan for medicines and treatment,” he said.

“They have distanced from humanity as far as this. The White House today has no sense of humanity. If it had a sense of humanity, it wouldn’t have done this,” he added.

The president also criticized “friendly countries” that have frozen Iran’s money in their banks.

“We have countries that are also our friends and our money is in their banks, [but] they have locked it three times and are not willing to release our money for our needs. They say that the Americans have pressured” them against unfreezing Iran’s money and that they had retreated in the face of the US oppression, Rouhani said.

Such a crime is unprecedented in history, with a country not being able to draw off its money deposited in a bank in a bid to cover its people’s health needs, he underlined.