Head of Iran Red Crescent says they’re going to buy 1 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine from China and the remaining 20million doses which are needed for Iran, would be purchased by the Ministry of Health through other channels! He admits a Samaritan has donated 150-200 thousand Pfizer vaccines! When asked why Chinese vaccine, he said, “The Eastern vaccines are more suitable to our condition! The Western one (Pfizer) needs -70 degrees storage which would make it difficult for us to distribute it!” Karim Hemmati continued, “we need 19-29 million doses for our population.” That’s less than 10% of the population. Saeed Namaki, Islamic Republic Health Minister, had said, “we need 41-42 million doses.”
On the other hand, Vice President of the Iranian Pharmacists Association has refuted “incompatible Pfizer vaccine” claim. Ali Fatemi said, Pfizer vaccine could be stored in room temperature for 10 days and could be recharge it every 5 days with dry ice. He also said, as long as it’s distributed within 1 month, there is no problem!
Head of Infectious Ward at Masih Daneshvari Hospital says at least 70% of population must be vaccinated in order for it to be effective and coronavirus spread stops! Dr Tabarsi said, “For the life to go back to normal, It will take at least 1 year after the general vaccination has taken place.” He also said, “we’re in line to receive the vaccines, which may take a few months!”
Saeed Namaki made another false claim today. He said, “We will prove the Iranian vaccine is superior to other vaccines.” The human trial is supposed to start this week, despite reports of it starting last week! Dr Minoo Mohraz, a member of National Task Force, had already announced the efficacy of Iranian COVID-19 vaccine to be 70% in animals!
Head of Islamic Republic FDA hopes to “improve the quality of 3-layer domestic masks after the companies been issued the permits to produce the mask and sell them in the market.” WHO had criticized the quality of domestic protection products in Iran in MAY but apparently, nobody has paid attention to it for more than 7 months!
While Islamic Republic officials are bragging about the manipulated numbers showing a sharp decline in the number of cases and deaths after months of struggling, Zanjan, Yasouj and Kermanshah have reported increasing number of COVID-19 admissions in the past 24 hours. In Kermanshah, the number is as high as 2.5 times the day before. Mazandaran officials are worried about entering the next peak, reporting increasing number of coronavirus infections! Head of Medical University said, “COVID-19 is not controlled in the province yet, and the numbers are on the rise again!”
Despite those reports, the Ministry of Health Spokesperson announced her daily undercounted data. According to Sima Sadat Lari, 119 have died of COVID-19 in Iran in the past 24 hours while 5,502 tested positive for the novel coronavirus. Testing remains in the same range and far from the promised 100,000 tests a day.
Basic Reproduction Rate (R0) and graphs remain the best indicators of the ongoing human catastrophe in Iran!
R0: 4.31
Total: 1,200,465 (+5,502)
Dead: 54,693 (+119)
Recovered: 951,860
Critical: 5,212 (-61)
Admitted: 193,912 (-3,929)
Tests: 7,407,400 (8.8% of the population, assuming each test was performed on 1 person)
