TEHRAN (Iran News) – President Hassan Rouhani said on Saturday that the U.S. inhumane sanctions against Iran had negative effects, and they were considered as one of the cruel crimes in Iran’s history.

The President of the Islamic Republic of Iran in a meeting of the National Task Force for Fighting Coronavirus, emphasizing that vaccination is for all people, said that it was necessary to deal with those who did not comply with quarantine rules.

President Rouhani said that according to statistics and reports, most of the provinces of the country were still at the peak of the disease, and the statistics in terms of infection, hospitalization, and deaths showed that the situation was still worrying, and “we have no choice but to step up monitoring this week and possibly next week.”

Emphasizing the need to form special monitoring teams to increase care and full compliance with health principles, Rouhani said: “All departments that have a kind of monitoring function should intensify monitoring to increase health compliance, otherwise we cannot cross this wave.”

“Another danger ahead of us today is the Indian virus,” Rouhani said, noting that the Indian virus is worse than the British, Brazilian, and South African viruses.

Rouhani added: “If this virus enters the country, we will have a big problem. I want the governors of Khorasan Razavi, South Khorasan and Sistan and Baluchestan and even the southern provinces such as Kerman and Hormozgan to respect and know that they have a big task to prevent this dangerous virus from entering the country.”

Rouhani stressed the need to ramp up controls to stop a mounting new wave of coronavirus infections and fatalities.

He said the statistics show that most provinces of Iran are on the way to see a peak in coronavirus cases amid the fourth wave of the pandemic.

The number of coronavirus cases, deaths and hospital admissions reveal that the situation is worrying, the president noted, adding, “We have no option but to intensify controls this week and probably the next week.”

He also urged the need to set up special teams to control and monitor the situation and to step up compliance with the health protocols.

“Sadly, the level of observance of health protocols is below 60 percent, while it must be above 90 percent,” Rouhani added.

The death toll from the coronavirus in Iran has surpassed 68,700 following a surge in the new cases of infections amid the fourth wave of pandemic.