Even though the new UK fast-spreading variant is rampant throughout Iran and officials warn this version of coronavirus to be deadlier, no new restriction has been placed in Khuzestan, Qazvin, Alborz and Tehran with confirmed cases. Meanwhile, Zanjan Governor announced any PCR positive person should be considered as infected with the mutated version and be quarantined immediately.
Khuzestan’s COVID-19 cases continue to rise with hospitals at full capacity. Fars officials report increasing cases south of the province. Gilan and other provinces record soaring walk-in cases. However, that doesn’t stop Friday Prayers in Fars. While any gathering is banned in “orange” cities (high risk), Friday Prayers seems to be an exception. Gilan Friday Prayers Committee announced 13 orange cities will hold the event tomorrow.
National Task Force Spokesman said 250,000 doses of Chinese coronavirus vaccine, Sinopharm, will arrive Iran next week. Raisi provided few details about how the $5b loan from International Monetary Fund has been used. He said the loan was for us to import “high tech” equipment for PCR testing and other tools. “We have purchased 100 of those machines, equipping 43 labs across the country.” Even with these purchases, only one lab could sequence the virus to diagnose mutations and number of daily tests has remained in the same 56,000 range.
Sima Sadat Lari presented her daily undercounted figures, even though they have been criticized since day one and officials admitting the real numbers are at last 3-4 times higher. According to the Ministry of Health Spokesperson, 80 died of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours in Iran while 8,066 tested positive for the novel coronavirus. Active cases continue to rise, shaping the new wave of coronavirus at the anniversary of epidemic in Iran, as shown on graphs.
R0: 4.18
Total: 1,550,142 (+8,066)
Dead: 59,264 (+80)
Recovered: 1,324,231
Critical: 3,679 (-5)
Admitted: 166,647 (+1,367)
Tests: 10,274,529 (12.2% of the population, assuming each test was performed on 1 person)
Cover: Isa Fathi
