Delta variant rampage in Iran continues with more hospitals getting filled with COVID-19 patients and some treating their patients in car on the street! Thousands of patients are sent home every day because there is no bed available. Bandar Anzali in Mazandaran erects field hospitals. Gilan is setting new records every day. Ardabil is critical. Tehran is in a devastating situation. Kerman’s cemetery is full and the authorities have started using the largest artificial forest in the country as grave site for COVID-19 victims.
Shortage of healthcare staff due to overflown hospitals has deteriorated the situation. Hormozgan has been asking the Ministry for more nurses to no avail. Kerman and other provinces are experiencing the same pressure.
Dr. Masoud Mardani, member of National COVID-19 Task Force, described the situation as “dreadful” and out of control. He confirmed hospitals are at full capacity and said the death toll will continue to rise as far as nothing is done to control the flood of patients. The infectious-diseases specialist asked Muharram gatherings to be held virtual. However, Khamenei representatives across the country and Islamic Propaganda Organization continue pushing for Muharran assemblies everywhere in Iran, regardless of the pandemic situation.
Meanwhile, the Islamic Republic government is selling one of the biggest hospitals in Alborz capital, Karaj! Khomeini hospital with 220 bed capacity is on sale.
On the other hand, vaccination continues slowly with ineffective vaccines, mostly Sinopharm. Islamic Republic officials have bragged about their “diplomacy” prowess when Japan donated 2.9million doses of AstraZeneca through COVAX. IranTrue reported at the time that Japan was not using the vaccines and their expiration date was approaching, so they donated millions to 15 countries, including Iran. Today, Japanese Consular in Tehran confirmed the vaccines will expire by October. He said, “Iran did not even pay for the delivery!” It is worth noting, Khamenei banned importing US and UK made vaccines to Iran in January.
According to the official data, since February 9, total of 14,736,197 shots have been administered while only 2,970,669 (3.53% of Iran population) are fully vaccinated.
Ministry of Health Spokesperson claimed 458 died of COVID-19 in Iran in the past 24 hours and 34,913 tested positive for the novel coronavirus. Deputy Health Minister Harirchi recently admitted the real numbers are “definitely much higher” than what is reported. Dr. Tabarsi had said the corrected figure for daily deaths is at least 700-800! The graphs illustrate the soaring active and critical cases. Active cases has set a new record for the past 18 months. Daily PCR testing is almost half of what was performed in May-June.
R0: 3.00
Total: 4,092,671 (+34,913)
Dead: 93,086 (+458)
Recovered: 3,492,468
Critical: 6,279 (+109)
Active Cases: 507,117 (+9,752)
Total Tests: 26,305,528
Cover: Mahla Jenabi
