Iran on Saturday announced the decision to close its land borders with neighboring countries for 15 days.
Iran on Saturday announced the decision to close its land borders with neighboring countries for 15 days to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 variant of Omicron.
Ruhollah Latifi, spokesman for Iran's Customs, said Iran's land borders with Turkey, Iraq, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Pakistan and Armenia are closed for half a month from Saturday.
Iran's Health Ministry on Saturday reported 1,121 new COVID-19 cases, raising the country's total infections to 6,182,905.
The pandemic also claimed 42 lives in the past 24 hours, taking the death toll to 131,348, according to the ministry.
More than six million people have recovered from the disease or been discharged from hospitals across the country, while 2,781 remain in intensive care units, it said.
By Saturday, almost 60 million Iranians have received their first vaccine doses, 51 million two jabs, and 5,478,443 in the country third booster shots.
A total of 41,388,312 tests have so far been carried out across the country.
On Dec. 19, Iran detected the first Omicron case in a traveler who returned from the United Arab Emirates.