Financial Tribune - A total of 3,000 nurses and other healthcare workers will be employed by the government, according to a letter sent by the head of Plan and Budget Organization of Iran, Mohammad Baqer Nobakht, to Health Minister Saeed Namaki on July 6.

PBO has allocated 10 trillion rials ($44.4 million) from the resources of Targeted Subsidies Plan to be paid to nurses as bonuses.

Previously, the government provided bonuses worth 20 trillion rials ($88.88 million) for nurses, Fars News Agency reported.

Deaths caused by the novel coronavirus in Iran crossed the 12,000 threshold on Wednesday, less than five months into the pandemic, as authorities scrambled to curb the spread of the contagion.

Overwhelmed hospitals have stoked fears of a disaster, as infections continue to rise.

According to Alireza Zali, the head of the province's coronavirus taskforce, the number of symptomatic patients visiting Tehran's hospitals has reached an all-time high, declaring that "Tehran is in need of immediate and forceful intervention".