National Task Force Spokesman reported about 43,000 COVID-19 patients are in hospitals across Iran, while the peak is still at least 2 weeks away. Dr. Raisi said at the last peak there were 23,000 admitted in hospitals. He warned, even after the peak, it takes some time to pass the “red” status. In the meantime, the devastating situation continues across the country with full hospitals, shortage of staff and oxygen.
Khuzestan is out of ICU beds, Kermanshah reports increasing number of hospitalizations and deaths, Alborz recorded a COVID-19 death every hour. According to Ministry of Health, 20 provinces are experiencing an acceleration of coronavirus spread, hospitalizations and death. In the past week (April 9-15), 1,799 have died in Iran. Based on the graphs, COVID-19 hospitalizations has increased 6.1 times in this wave compared to the third one, and this number is 4.1 for deaths.
Chairman of Tehran City Council announced daily death toll in the capital has passed 130 while on April 11, he had said the number was 70! Mohsen Hashemi admitted even the loose restrictions are not being enforced. Head of Tehran Merchants Room criticized the government for demanding shopkeepers to close but keeps the banks open.
The overwhelming number of coronavirus cases, hospitalizations and deaths across Iran are on the rise. Slow vaccination and shortage of shots remains the main problem in containing the virus. Director General of Drug Administration at Ministry of Health in a radio interview said free vaccination is only available to vulnerable groups which are about 2.2 million people. Dr. Heydar Mohammadi said if private companies can import vaccines, each dose will cost about 200-300,000 Toman at pharmacies for the ones not on priority list! Dr. Jahanpur, FDA Spokesman, immediately denied the claim, saying Ministry of Health is the only responsible party for the vaccination program and every shot is free for everybody. President of Islamic Republic has been an advocate for private companies to be involved in the process.
Ministry of Health Spokesperson announced 516,860 doses have been administered in Iran since February 9, 2021. Sima Sadat Lari claimed a total of 127,594 are fully vaccinated which is 0.15% of the population. She asserted 405 died of COVID-19 in Iran in the past 24 hours. That’s the first time more than 400 died in a day since November 27, 2020. In the same time, 21,644 tested positive for the novel coronavirus. It is noteworthy that Islamic Republic Ministry of Health data are manipulated and Iran Medical Board officials believe the real numbers are at least 3 times higher. Critical and active cases continue to rise. Daily PCR testing reduced by 3,500.
R0: 3.82
Total: 2,237,089 (+21,644)
Dead: 66,732 (+405)
Recovered: 1,785,358
Critical: 4,766 (+70)
Active Cases: 384,999 (+8,569)
Tests: 14,386,423 (17.2% of the population, assuming each test was performed on 1 person)
Cover: Peyman Hamidipoor
