TEHRAN -- Iran has detected its first case of infection by the new omicron variant of the coronavirus, national TV reported Sunday.
The announcement comes as the variant spreads around the globe less than a month after scientists alerted the World Health Organization to the concerning-looking version.
Kamal Heidari, Iran’s deputy health minister, said that an Iranian man from Tehran had tested positive after returning from the United Arab Emirates.
“We detected him very quickly and immediately quarantined him and the contact cases,” Heidari said.
“The necessary measures were taken to quarantine this person who lives in Tehran and those who were in contact with him.”
Iran has vaccinated some 60% of its population of roughly 85 million people with two doses of coronavirus vaccines.
The coronavirus has killed more than 131,000 people in Iran. The number of deaths has decreased in recent months due to the vaccination, experts say.
Iran accelerated vaccinations in recent weeks. More than 50 million Iranians have received their second shots, and 3.5 million have received the third shots.
Only 7 million Iranians had received vaccinations when President Ebrahin Raisi formed his administration in late August.
Iran generally uses the China-made Sinopharm vaccine, though the Russian Sputnik-V and the vaccine made by the British-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca are also in use.
Iranian officials urged people who got two doses of vaccine to get their third dose as soon as possible.
No Iranian city has been in the COVID-19 high-risk red zone during the past 24 hours, the Ministry of Health and Medical Education said on Saturday. According to the ministry’s latest figures, eight cities are in the orange zone, 119 are in the yellow zone and 321 in the blue zone.