President Hassan Rouhani has expressed fears that Iran will be hit by a new wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, due to an outbreak of the Delta variant.

“It is feared that we are on the way to a fifth wave throughout the country,” Rouhani told a meeting of Iran's anti-virus taskforce, warning the public to be careful as “the Delta variant has spread” in southern provinces.

Iran is battling the Middle East's deadliest outbreak of the coronavirus. Covid-19 has killed more than 84,000 people out of over 3.2 million detected infections in the Islamic republic, according to official figures that authorities admit do not account for all infections.