Kianoush Jahanpur, who has always been criticized for his outrageous comments, has made a new one in his interview with Hamshahri. The Director of PR Office at the Islamic Republic Ministry of Health praised regime’s response to the COVID-19 crisis and especially the ongoing massacre happening amid the Delta variant rampage in Iran, saying: “The predictions were more than 1,500 deaths a day, so even if 700 are dying, we should thank God for the 800 that don’t!” The official statistics released by the Ministry of Health have been criticized since day one and recently, Deputy Health Minister Harirchi admitted the real numbers are “definitely much higher.” An epidemiology professor at the University of Tehran said the reported figures must be multiplied by 7 and Civil Registration Organization data shows more than 245,000 have died of COVID-19 in Iran until August 21, 2021.
On the other hand, Dr. Naji, head of Virology Research Center at Beheshti University in Tehran, rebuked the government for not following science in managing the crisis and warned that the daily death toll will reach 4-digit territory in coming weeks. He expressed his disappointment in not doing anything to control the virus and letting it run its natural course. He admitted Mashhad is in devastating situation. Meanwhile, Lambda variant is the new worry to be alarmed about.
Khorasan Razavi (Mashhad), Isfahan, Tehran, Zanjan,… continue to report increasing number of cases, hospitalizations and deaths. Isfahan officials announced 40 COVID-19 deaths in one day while all cities in the province are designated as “red!” Head of Qaem hospital in Mashhad expressed his worry about Lambda and the sixth wave, while noting that the constant waves throughout the country has put non-COVID-19 patients at risk of death. Dr. Khodaparast said all beds are occupied by COVID-19 cases and cardiac, oncology, surgery,… patients have been neglected. He admitted to the shortage of medications and healthcare staff too, asking officials to heed to these problems. He added the “black fungus” has been much more common during the fifth wave with Delta variant.
The back to back waves of coronavirus breakouts in Iran, have overwhelmed the healthcare professionals. There have been numerous reports of suicide, depression and exhaustion among them. The Islamic Republic has treated them as slaves for regime’s propaganda whenever it needed them and then neglected their needs until the next round! Many have taken it to streets in the past 18 months for their past due benefits and wages.
Shortage of medications, oxygen and hospital beds on the one hand, and late chaotic slow vaccination on the other, have infuriated ordinary citizens. Every day, there are videos on social media with people cursing at Khamenei for banning the importation of US and UK made vaccines and Raisi and the regime in general for lying about management of the crisis. “I have been looking for these prescription meds for 3 days. I can’t find any of them. Mr. Raisi, if you can find them for me, do it, otherwise don’t brag about everything being accessible. We don’t want you, get out of our country.”
Islamic Republic officials had claimed “homegrown vaccines” will be ready to be exported soon, and “Iran will become a pioneer in COVID-19 vaccine production,”… have either left the office, were promoted to the Vice President position or are above all to answer for any crime they commit, including massacre! Now Iranians have to struggle with vaccination centers shut down every day.
Even Mashhad Medical University official admitted that AstraZeneca’s second dose is scarce across the country. Zahra Nahbandani said the Ministry of Health has promised to either provide the vaccines by the end of the week or issue new guidelines as to how deal with the delayed second doses!
According to official data, since February 9, total of 25,608,502 shots have been administered and only 7,563,414 (9.00% of Iran population) have received both doses of ineffective vaccines. The Ministry of Health Spokesperson presented her daily manipulated data too. Sima Sadat Lari claimed 614 died of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours in Iran while 26,034 tested positive for the novel coronavirus. As seen on the graphs, distinct and constant waves of coronavirus have hit Iran one harder than the other, while Islamic Republic does nothing to curtail them.
R0: 2.98
Total: 4,895,448 (+26,034)
Dead: 105,901 (+614)
Recovered: 4,117,098
Critical: 7,845 (+28)
Active Cases: 672,449 (-6,687)
Total Tests: 28,556,919
Cover: Behzad Alipour
