Ministry of Health sent a text message to all Iranians warning “the fourth wave of coronavirus in Iran has definitely begun and it is spreading throughout the country.” The text emphasizes the number of COVID-19 cases is on the rapid rise across the country. Deputy Health Minister Raisi expresses his concern that high risk areas will expand even more in the next few days. He claimed more than 15,000 people with positive coronavirus results traveled out of their city! All officials, including local authorities, have banned people from celebrating the “Nature Day” outdoors in small family get-together while indoor crowded gatherings such as Friday Prayers are allowed, even in “orange” cities of Gilan and other high risk areas.
Head of Tehran Corona Combating Committee claims the current surge in numbers is not due to trips but their impact will manifest and will be “assessed” in the next few weeks. However, Ministry of Health has been hammering people with their travelings and blaming everything on them. Even then, Islamic Republic is responsible since they allowed traveling to the entire country in Nowruz holidays in order to trap people, creating more chaos. And now, everything is focused on 1 day outdoor small family gatherings, while with “lobbying” movie theaters are added to the list of essential businesses in orange cities and reopened from today!
Dr. Mardani, a member of National Task Force, reiterated with the overwhelming number of hospitalizations and cases in hospitals, “what’s the point in preventing people from Nature Day?” He added the traveling which should not have been allowed led to “this overloaded hospitals.” He continued the situation will worsen and hospitals will face shortages in equipment and staff.
Bushehr reported an 8-times increase in coronavirus cases in the province compared to 2 months ago. The officials confirm the dominant variant is the British one. Kohgiolyeh-Boyerahmad officials report ravaging coronavirus in the province. Khorasan Razavi recorded a 61% increase in hospitalizations across the province. The new UK variant continues to rage through Hormozgan. Head of Shiraz Medical University admitted there is an unprecendented spike in cases, hospitalizations and deaths in the province compared to 3 months ago. He said after months, there were 10 deaths in 24 hours in Fars. Ahvaz Medical University rebuked police and security officials for allowing a massive crowd in a funeral in Shush, Khuzestan. Abolnejadian said, “this is how our struggles and efforts go to waste.”
Despite the grim reports of coronavirus situation in Iran, people waiting in long lines with no social distancing, and very low number of vaccinations in the country, the Minister of Health came out on the “Islamic Republic Day,” to commemorate its achievements in the past 42 years! He claimed, “We will become one of the main axis of vaccine manufacturing in the world soon.” Today, another 100,000 doses of Russian Sputnik V arrived in Iran. According to officials, less than 200,000 have been inoculated so far, after more than 4 months.
Despite wide criticism of regime’s data, even by its own officials admitting the real numbers are at least 3 times higher, Ministry of Health Spokesperson continues her daily charade. Sima Sadat Lari claimed 94 died of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours in Iran while 11,750 tested positive. That is the highest number of daily cases since December 5, 2020. According to her, 1,371 were admitted in the same time-frame, a record since November 2020. Daily PCR testing increased by 1,000 but so did the positivity rate. It rose 1.77% from yesterday to 16.44% today. Active cases had the biggest jump in months as well, as seen on the graphs.
R0: 3.77
Total: 1,897,314 (+11,750)
Dead: 62,759 (+94)
Recovered: 1,626,144
Critical: 3,989 (+19)
Admitted: 208,411 (+2,845)
Tests: 12,893,317 (15.5% of the population, assuming each test was performed on 1 person)
Cover: Mehdi Bakhshi
