The story: Iran says the UK variant of COVID-19 is circulating nationwide, prompting serious alarm over a “fourth wave” of the pandemic. Health officials are now calling for stricter measures to be imposed on borders to curb the spread, which they fear could undo all the achievements in the battle. This comes as daily mortalities in the country have only recently dropped to two-digits.

The coverage: “The alarm over the fourth wave of the pandemic has been sounded,” wrote the government’s official newspaper, Iran, on Feb. 15. The paper quoted Health Minister Saeed Namaki as saying that “the mutated variant is travelling across the country”...