DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran s supreme leader said on Wednesday the COVID-19 pandemic was the country s number-one problem and must urgently be curbed, and called for greater efforts to import and produce vaccines. Daily coronavirus cases have hit 42,000 in a fifth wave of infections in Iran, which has been hit worse by the disease than any other Middle East country. The pandemic is Iran s number-one problem today . The number of infected people and the fatalities are truly tragic. . It is an urgent matter that must be curbed, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a televised speech. Iran s health ministry on Wednesday reported 42,541 new cases in the past 24 hours, bringing total cases to 4,281,217. Deaths rose by 536 to 95,647, which the ministry blamed on the more infectious Delta variant. Khamenei, who in January banned imports of U.S.- and British-made vaccines, said the government should increase efforts to both import and to produce homegrown vaccines . Social media users, inside and outside
By Lidia Kelly MELBOURNE (Reuters) -Australia saw a record daily number of new coronavirus cases this year on Saturday, with the country s most populous states of New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland recording a total of 361 cases of the highly infectious Delta variant. With about 15 million people in the three states, or 60% of Australia s population, under a strict lockdown, the country also reported five coronavirus-related deaths, one of the highest this year. NSW suffered its worst pandemic day, reporting 319 new locally acquired COVID-19 cases, with Sydney and neighbouring regional centres spanning 200 km (120 miles) of coastline under a stay-at-home order for six weeks already. There are 345 people admitted to hospital in NSW, with 56 in intensive care and 23 under ventilation. NSW authorities, who had been reluctant to put Sydney into a lockdown, said lack of observance of rules has been a problem. What we have happening right now is some people are not complying, NSW Healt