With the new variants (UK and possibly Brazilian) of coronavirus in Iran, officials have begun to rebuke the government for late and too slow vaccination process in the country. A member of Health Commission at Islamic Consultative Assembly said the fourth wave is another reason for accelerating the immunization of Iranians but it is going too slow!
On the other hand, after March 24 announcement of FDA asking private companies to apply for importing coronavirus vaccine license, a member of Commerce Chamber admitted Islamic Republic has asked for help too late. Najafi-Arab in an interview with HamshahriOnline said private companies cannot afford to pay for vaccines, plus there is no vaccine left to import since they are all pre-ordered. He added no other country asked private companies to do this but Iran! Deputy Health Minister Harirchi confirmed no import license has been issued to private companies.
Bloomberg vaccine tracker shows 3,806 doses are injected on a daily basis and estimates it would take 10 years for 75% of the population to receive a dose. That means 10 years till herd immunity. Islamic Republic officials have claimed by beginning of summer, domestic COVIran Barekat would enter the market which will accelerate the daily doses injected. National Task Force Spokesman has claimed by March 2022, herd immunity is in effect in Iran.
The fourth surge of COVID-19 is taking over the entire country. Saeed Namaki furiously admitted the coronavirus has been unleashed in Iran once again. Mr. Health Minister said he does not know when deaths would be decreasing again! He also announced a new set of criteria will be considered for coloring and restrictions of cities. Namaki confirmed one of these criteria would be infections with new variants.
Hospitalization records are being broken across the country. Ahvaz Health Council announced 50% positivity rate in the city. An official from Qazvin reported 80% increase in hospitalizations in the province from a month ago! He admitted the cases are on a steep rise. Alborz recorded 2-digit daily death toll after months. North Khorasan announced doubling of its hospitalizations from last week. Another hospital in Dezful is at full capacity. ISNA published individual provinces’ COVID-19 cases and deaths, indicating the uptrend in Tehran, Ilam, Mazandaran, Alborz, Semnan, Khuzestan, Lorestan, Gilan, West Azerbaijan, Markazi, Isfahan, Khorazan Razavi, and Hormozgan.
Despite the bleak coronavirus situation in Iran, religious leaders are insisting on gatherings during Ramadan. Deputy Strategic and Communication Office of Islamic Propaganda Organization criticized National Task Force for closing all mosques in orange and red areas during Ramadan. He claimed these are not “expert” decisions and must be revised. There are “expert” plans in place for mosques to be classified based on their history of following protocols and be permitted to hold gatherings! And the cleric from yesterday’s video issued an explanation saying: “Inside a shrine is different from anywhere else, no mask should be worn. Shrines heal!”
Ministry of Health Spokesperson announced her daily engineered data, even though Iran Medical Council authorities have admitted the real numbers are at least 3 times higher. Sima Sadat Lari claimed 161 died of COVID-19 in Iran in the past 24 hours, the most daily death toll since December 23, 2020. In the same time, 11,680 tested positive for the novel coronavirus. Daily PCR tests reduced by 2,500 from the day before while positivity rate increased to 16.13%. Active and critical cases continue to soar, as seen on the graphs.
R0: 3.77
Total: 1,932,074 (+11,680)
Dead: 63,160 (+161)
Recovered: 1,650,569
Critical: 4,057 (+33)
Admitted: 218,345 (+3,368)
Tests: 13,111,118 (15.7% of the population, assuming each test was performed on 1 person)
