Dr. Souri, head of “rapid response team” of the Ministry of Health rebuked the entire system for not prioritizing the coronavirus crisis and helping the Ministry, “Unless our vision of the pandemic is changed and some fundamental shift happens, nothing would change.” He criticized the way the government has been dealing with the crisis and pointed out the constant COVID-19 waves as the result of mismanagement. He warned about Lambda which is reported in Turkey and other neighboring countries. Dr. Souri also predicted the increasing number of cases and deaths due to Delta variant would continue in coming days because the peak of the fifth wave hasn’t been reached yet, “the situation is worsening day by day!”
Lorestan officials reported more than 1,400 COVID-19 hospitalizations in the province, a new record. Dr. Veysi of Kermanshahi hospital in Kermanshah expressed her concern about more than 4,000 children and newborns suspected of COVID-19 in her hospital in the past month. She warned that the real number is definitely higher since many parents do not go to hospitals. Ardabil continues to be overwhelmed with the flood of patients and Ilam joins the list of critical provinces.
Meanwhile, “black fungus” has become an additional hurdle for many patients and health professionals. Since Amphotericin B is scarce in Iran, in addition to other medications, the Islamic Republic FDA asked physicians to use substitutes until more Amphotricin B is available! It is worth noting, that according to local reports, the cost of treating “black fungus” reaches billions of tomans, which is a fortune! Saline solution is another scarce medical need in Iran, amid Delta variant ravaging the country. Dr Norouzian of Hormozgan Medical University confirmed the shortage and said only hospitals will have saline solutions and not pharmacies. The majority of COVID-19 patients are being treated at home or physicians’ offices which need saline solutions for remdesivir injections or simple homeostasis.
On the other hand, the slow and chaotic vaccination which has outraged Iranians and they have expressed their anger in their videos and social media towards Khamenei and the Islamic Republic for the ongoing massacre, continues. Islamic Republic officials, however, instead of addressing the issues, have begun a widespread campaign to shift the blame from Khamenei who banned US and UK made vaccines in January. They have gone as far as revealing the real number of deaths and cases being 7 times more than the official data, but blaming the administrations instead of Khamenei. In this regard, today, Borna telegram channel, which is close to IRGC, quoted Ali Larijani, special advisor to Khamenei in the 25-year deal with China, claiming the previous Health Minister and his team, hesitated to import 18 million doses of Chinese Sinopharm last summer.
Since February 9, and according to the official data, total of 25,115,401 shots of ineffective vaccines have been administered while only 7,248,918 (8.62% of Iran population) have received both doses. The Ministry of Health Spokesperson presented her manipulated data, which according to some sources must be multiplied by 7. Sima Sadat Lari claimed 571 passed away from COVID-19 and 36,279 tested positive for the novel coronavirus in the past 24 hours in Iran. Civil Registration Organization puts the number of deaths from COVID-19 north of 245,000 until August 21, 2021. As seen on the graphs, active and critical cases conquer a new high every day.
R0: 3.04
Total: 4,869,414 (+36,279)
Dead: 105,287 (+571)
Recovered: 4,084,991
Critical: 7,817 (+29)
Active Cases: 679,136 (+3,739)
Total Tests: 28,438,161
Cover: Seyed Mosleh Pirkhezranian
