Iran is currently fighting a fourth wave of the pandemic, according to its health authorities, who announce horrifying rates on a daily basis. As of 6 April, the number of cities under a red alert hit 88, marking a sudden jump from 47 only two days before. One of the latest members of the red zone is the capital Tehran. Of the city’s 175 hospitals, 173 are dealing with Covid patients, whose population has grown by 100% since last week, fuelling fears that in a matter of weeks, if not days, hospitals will be overwhelmed. Over 90,000 nurses battling the pandemic on the poorly-equipped front lines have been infected by the virus. The rates are blamed on an easily transmissible new mutation, which was first identified in the UK and referred to as the British virus. The government traced the spiking rates to negligence of preventive measures during the two-week Persian New Year holidays that ended on 2 April.