Iraj Harirchi became famous in the world with his quote at the beginning of outbreak in Iran. He said, “Quarantine is for pre-WWI and is not effective,” on national TV, while coughing and sweating! The next day, he announced he is infected with the novel coronavirus! Today, he said, “Traveling is a big factor in spreading the virus. People should stay at home and don’t go to gatherings. Mashhad and Mazandaran are in critical status because of travelers. The virus reached other parts of the world through traveling!” All of these translate to quarantining a city or epicenter would help in stopping the coronavirus spread! However, all travel restrictions were lifted in April, and Rouhani, President of the Islamic Republic, has clearly stated that the economic situation has made it impossible to quarantine any city. But is the economical situation any better today with 2,000+ daily infections, while it was much less than that in March-April, even according to the widely discredited and undercounted stats provided by the Ministry!?
In his press conference today, Harirchi repeated other officials’ statement about a better condition in the country and 45% decrease in cases! We have refuted others’ claims in our daily reports with Ministry’s Spokesperson data, and today, Sima Sadat Lari has done it for us, again! She announced 2,245 new COVID-19 cases and 133 deaths since yesterday, and the same 26 provinces in red (15) and alarming (11) status. That has made the active cases jump to 29,009! He claimed since July 5, that wearing mask has become mandatory across the country, it’s helped. The graphs indicate, for the first few days, the cases have decreased but it then continued to soar again from July 20! Exactly 2 weeks later. That’s because no protocol is truly enforced in the country and traveling between cities/provinces is not restricted to break the spreading chain!
Khamenei canceled his annual public Moharram (Muharram) gathering and announced the private ceremony would be televised on national TV. Another confirmation that he’s most afraid for his life while has no respect for others’ and encouraging the public to participate in Moharram mourning ceremonies. Harirchi, the second health authority in Islamic Republic as Deputy Health Minister, also said a few words about Moharram, and how everybody must follow the protocols. Everybody must wear a mask, social distance and no gathering is allowed indoors! But as we have shown in videos, and mentioned above, all of these have been broken already. Saeed Namaki and Harirchi, both have raised their concern about the upcoming fall and concurrent flu-COVID-19 infections in addition to allergies and other respiratory infections, with no plans to confront them. Namaki keeps promising a vaccine is on the horizon while Harirchi says the average time to produce one is 7 years, and nobody should count on it, playing with people’s heads and emotions every day!
Despite all these red flags, Islamic Republic President and his ministers are talking about sending students back to school from September 5! That would be another disaster, especially in Tehran and other big cities. The situation isn’t better for college students whom would have to travel to other cities for their studies, especially the freshmen.
The Basic Reproduction Rate (R0) increases 2 points to 1.44 indicating the high chance of spread from one person to the others. Growth factors have not even come close to 1, even based on the falsified data by the regime.
R0: 1.44
Total: 361,150 (+2,245)
Dead: 20,776 (+133)
Healed: 311,365
Critical: 3,848 (+7)
Admitted: 29,009 (+211)
Tests: 3,062,422
