Hospitals in Iran face acute shortages of medical personnel and beds as the country tackles a powerful second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, a senior official of Tehran's anti-coronavirus task force said.

Iran, the Middle East country hardest hit by the pandemic, began relaxing its lockdown in mid-April. But a second wave of infections emerged in early June and has proven much more serious than the first one, said Reza Jalili-Khoshnood, who is himself infected, the semi-official ISNA news agency reported.

Jalili-Khoshnood was quoted as saying that at one hospital — Tehran's Shohada, where he is hospitalised — 172 medical staff have been infected themselves or are caring for infected family members. He said he there were also shortages of beds including of intensive care beds.