Islamic Republic Health Minister who had claimed Iran has been among top 10 countries to control COVID-19, and another official spouted off the country as one of the top 10 countries in “manufacturing” COVID-19 vaccines. On the other hand, Eynollahi blames US sanctions as a deterrent and a hurdle for the regime to control the disease. He also “hoped” that WHO will expedite the approval process for vaccines. None of the “homegrown” shots, including PastoCoVac, COVPars, Fakhra, Noora, Spikogen, has met the expectations and none of them has published their results or received recognition/approval from international health organizations.
Meanwhile, Omicron continues raging through the country. Kermanshah has admitted more than 400 and Fars continues to report increasing number of cases and deaths. While Eynollahi had said Iran has passed the peak, member of National COVID-19 Task Force contradicted him saying “we could reach the peak in the next day or two.” Dr. Mokhtari warned another wave might reach Iran and the country is “still in abnormal and fragile situation.” At the same time, schools and universities are back to mandatory in-person classes.
Vaccination has slowed down for weeks, Gilan Medical University announced half of hospitalized patients have not received any vaccine. According to official definition of “full vaccination” and Ministry of Health data, since February 9, only 22,992,757 (27.37% of Iran population) are vaccinated against COVID-19 with these vaccines. It is estimated that more than 53 million Iranians are at risk of contracting Omicron. The majority of shots used in Iran are the ineffective Sinopharm and COVIran Barekat. WHO recommends 3 doses of Sinopharm to be effective against Delta but studies have found the vaccine ineffective against Omicron. The Islamic Republic “Supreme Leader” banned the reliable US and UK made vaccines, leading to tsunami of deaths during Delta wave. Khamenei promoted his foundation’s shot, COVIran Barekat, which failed miserably.
The Ministry of Health Spokesperson claimed 241 have died of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours and 9,524 tested positive for the novel coronavirus. Number of daily tests performed in the country continue to decline despite experts advice to have a more active case finding. Professor of Epidemiology at Tehran University believes these numbers must be multiplied by 7 and Civil Registration Organization data show more than 323,000 have died of the disease since February 2020.
R0: 2.36
Total: 7,040,467 (+9,524)
Dead: 136,631 (+241)
Recovered: 6,634,126
Critical: 4,049 (+83)
Active Cases: 277,920 (-8,210)
Total Tests: 47,168,989
Cover: AmirAbbas Ghasemi
