After weeks of stubbornness and ignoring health experts warnings regarding reopening schools and mandatory in-person classes, the Islamic Republic Health Minister expresses his concern over increasing number of COVID-19 cases among students! Eynollahi was “proud” of using the ineffective and unapproved Sinopharm on students 12-17, but according to the latest official data, only about 24% of students have received 2 doses of the vaccine. WHO recommends 3 doses of Sinopharm for “full vaccination!” There have been reports of many students testing positive for the novel coronavirus. Today, Tarem, a small county in Zanjan province, announced than 1591 students have contracted the virus!
In the current uncertain times, 18 students were aboard a small unventilated minibus for inter-city travel. The old minibus crashed into a truck and killed 2 of the students while the others were transferred to a hospital in Kermanshah. The tragedy reaches a new level of sadness when Islamic Republic officials blame the parents for “choosing the minibus!”
On the other hand, healthcare staff across Iran continue to struggle for their unpaid wages and benefits. After more than 22 months, Khuzestan officials are “following up nurses’ demands for their payments!”
COVID-19 vaccination which has been deemed futile if delayed, continues at a slow rate. Ministry of Health claims since February 9, 2021, only 1,811,379 (2.15% of Iran population) have received 3 doses of these vaccines, majority of which are the Chinese Sinopharm. Since October 13, the regime has not released individual stats for each vaccine used. It is worth mentioning, Khamenei banned US and UK made vaccines in January, promoting the COVIran Barekat which failed miserably, and led to a massacre during Delta wave. Now that Omicron has had the world worried and Pfizer announced 3 doses of its vaccine would neutralize the new variant, the travesty of Khamenei’s decision becomes obvious once again.
The Ministry of Health Spokesperson claimed 90 have died of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours and 3,309 tested positive for the novel coronavirus. That’s a significant increase in daily death toll compared to the past few days. Professor of Epidemiology at Tehran University believes these numbers must be multiplied by 7 and Civil Registration Organization data show more than 312,000 have died of the disease since February 2020. Graphs illustrate the ongoing crisis in Iran and forming of the new wave.
R0: 1.86
Total: 6,144,644 (+3,309)
Dead: 130,446 (+90)
Recovered: 5,943,467
Critical: 3,185 (-28)
Active Cases: 70,731 (-3,273)
Total Tests: 39,632,983
Cover: Nasrin Tohidizadeh