COVID-19 seems unstoppable in Iran! It took the lives of 362 more Iranians in the past 24 hours, and manipulated statistics provided by Ministry of Health show 13,621 new coronavirus infections. In the meantime, Jan Babaie, Deputy Health Minister in Treatment Affairs, claims cases have decreased 20-30% compared to before the 2-week “lockdown.” He went a step further and said, “we’re ahead of many countries in containing of COVID-19.” It’s been more than 9 months that Iran has been grappling with the deadly disease affecting all aspects of Iranians’ lives but Islamic Republic hasn’t made any correct decision, making matters worse at every turn.
Saeed Namaki warned about normalization of deaths and high number of cases. He asked everybody to stay vigilant and not break the protocols. He had previously allowed large gatherings during Muharram, Ramadan,…! Kianush Jahanpur, FDA Spokesman, announced the first Iranian COVID-19 vaccine has been approved by Ethics Committee for human trials. In the meantime, the Health Minister said the regime has pre-ordered 16,800,000 doses of coronavirus vaccine. Namaki had said 21million doses have been ordered. He confirmed there is cooperation between Islamic Republic, Russia and other countries to produce the vaccine.
Healthcare staff continue to struggle with unpaid wages and benefits, while the Ministry promises to hire new workforce! Fars and Kerman continue to report record breaking numbers.
Basic Reproduction Rate (R0) increases again while graphs depict waves and growing number of active cases clearly. Critical cases decreased like in the past 4 days. Testing remains in the same range.
R0: 4.52
Total: 989,572 (+13,621)
Dead: 48,990 (+362)
Recovered: 688,054
Critical: 5,828 (-12)
Admitted: 252,528 (+3,168)
Tests: 6,212,694 (7.4% of the population, assuming each test was performed on 1 person)
Cover: Saeid Goli
