Saeed Namaki lashed out at everybody and every government agency who is not following protocols. Whenever there is a coronavirus wave, he becomes the victim and predictor of all, and as soon as the decline in COVID-19 cases begin in Iran, Mr. Health Minister is the savior with the leadership of Khamenei! Today, he asked to be called, “Director General of Morgue” instead of Islamic Republic Health Minister because nobody listens to him and his directives.
In the meantime, the situation in Khuzestan continues to worsen by the hour. Razi hospital in Ahvaz reported full capacity of its general and ICU beds. Head of the hospital said the number of cases is beyond belief. Advisor to the Head of Ahvaz Medical University said Tehran hasn’t approved quarantine of Khuzestan yet, but the request will be sent again. This is the same mistake theocratic regime made last year, at the beginning of the epidemic in Iran and not quarantining Qom. Head of East Ahvaz Health Network reported 16-fold COVID-19 cases in the past 2 weeks. UK variant remains dominant in Khuzestan and has reached other provinces.
Alborz reported 3 confirmed cases, 2 of them have died. One of them came to Alborz from Gilan and the other from Qazvin. That increases the chance that Gilan is hosting the fast-spreading version too. Alborz officials report 38 people are in “special quarantine” in 3 counties. They didn’t offer more details. East Azerbaijan announced its first case of the mutated virus. Khorasan Razavi made the news with 30 suspected cases of UK variant but no confirmed ones yet. Shahroud in Semnan has seen 2-fold daily walk-ins and hospitalizations compared to last month. Hamedan is no exception, reporting increasing number of cases. South Khorasan reported 1 confirmed case of UK variant in the province.
Chairman of Tehran Corona Combating Committee said 3 confirmed UK variant patients have died in capital. Zali reported increase in walk-ins and hospitalizations. He said he has written a letter to Interior Minister and Health Minister requesting all international flights to be suspended, to prevent faster spread of other coronavirus mutations.
Meanwhile, FDA Spokesman announced the emergency use for Chinese coronavirus vaccine, Sinopharm, has been approved. While Health Minister had said 250,000 doses of Sinopharm will be imported next week, implying that Islamic Republic has paid for the vaccines, Foreign Ministry Spokesman said those vaccines have been “gifted” to Iran. Khamenei banned 150,000 doses of Pfizer gifted by a philanthropist!
Sima Sadat Lari continues to present her daily manipulated data, even though officials had admitted the real figures are at least 3-4 times higher. Ministry of Health Spokesperson announed 89 COVID-19 deaths in the past 24 hours in Iran while 8,263 tested positive for the novel coronavirus. Testing remains in the same range while positivity rate reached 14.56%, a jump from 13.88% yesterday. Active cases see the biggest jump in month, as seen on graphs.
R0: 4.18
Total: 1,582,275 (+8,263)
Dead: 59,572 (+89)
Recovered: 1,351,390
Critical: 3,685 (-4)
Admitted: 171,313 (+1,575)
Tests: 10,501,415 (12.6% of the population, assuming each test was performed on 1 person)
Cover: Nastaran Momenzadeh
