The novel coronavirus continues to rage through Iran, especially Khuzestan. With 11 red counties and the rest as “orange”, hospitals are at full capacity. The new UK variant has become an obstacle and officials are unable to control its overwhelming impact on the healthcare system. Dr. Abdolnejadian, head of Ahvaz Medical University announced the death of a 1 year old and a 9-year-old in Khuzestan, warning parents to protect their children since this variant infects children and young adults as much, “outside house, artillery of coronavirus is active.”
Jan Babaei, Deputy Health Minister in Treatment Affairs, reported cases have increased 5-fold in SW Khuzestan compared to 4 weeks ago. He also confirmed hospitals are at full capacity and satellite hospitals are being used to attend to flood of patients. Deputy Health Minister Harirchi blamed spread of the virus on children. He said 5-17-year-olds are infected more often that before, for example in Tehran, 11% of cases are in this age range, compared to 4% before. He didn’t offer any details but said kids below 12 years old have been hospitalized in higher rate. Dr. Harirchi confirmed the mutated version of coronavirus is spread throughout the country.
While other provinces including Kohgiloyeh-Boyerahmad, Lorestan, Qazvin, Alborz and Tehran report soaring cases, Sima Sadat Lari announced her daily manipulated data. According to the Ministry of Health Spokesperson, 77 died of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours in Iran while 8,017 tested positive for the novel coronavirus. Only one lab in Tehran is equipped to sequence the virus, therefore, there is no new report on the number of confirmed UK variant cases.
Testing remains in the same range and active cases continue to rise, shaping up the new uptrend, as seen on graphs. On the anniversary of official announcement of coronavirus entrance to Iran, only 12.3% of population have been PCR tested and a handful vaccinated with Russian Sputnik V.
R0: 4.18
Total: 1,558,159 (+8,017)
Dead: 59,341 (+77)
Recovered: 1,331,162
Critical: 3,669 (-10)
Admitted: 167,656 (+1,009)
Tests: 10,330,898 (12.4% of the population, assuming each test was performed on 1 person)
Cover: Koosha Mahshid Falahi
