Ahvaz Medical University officials announced 100% occupancy of ICU beds in the city. Soltani said healthcare staff’s capacity is wearing off, them burning out is inevitable and there is shortage of staff in COVID-19 wards. The positivity rate for coronavirus in east of Ahvaz alone has reached 40%! Mardani, head of Eastern Ahvaz Health Network, said the area is experiencing a peak! While cutting power of Ahvaz markets and downtown to prevent gatherings enters its second week, National Task Force refused to quarantine Khuzestan, denying the provincial request for the third time. In the meantime, local officials ask people to stay at home!
Bushehr officials report 110% increase in COVID-19 cases from last month. They admit threat of UK variant is high but they haven’t found any cases so far. Bushehr Medical University officials believe the only way to contain the virus is to quarantine the epicenter, a fact that National Task Force refuses to do about Khuzestan. Ilam warns its residents about the fast-spreading version of the novel coronavirus in the province. Fars health authorities say there are signs of the fourth wave in the province. With 3 confirmed and 9 suspected cases of UK variant, officials banned traveling to Shiraz. Hormozgan found 2 new cases of the variant, making their total 12. Hamedan reports increased COVID-19 hospitalizations. Asadabad is the only “blue” city in the province, possibly being upgraded to “yellow” next week.
Health experts emphasize on the potency and fast-spreading characteristics of the UK variant, asking people to take it seriously and with the faintest symptoms go to hospitals. Ghazizadeh-Hashemi, Vice-Speaker of the Islamic Consultative Assembly and a member of National Task Force, in the weekly meeting of the group, announced there are signs of a new variant in Iran, which he called, “Iranian variant.” He previously had reported South African version as well but it was denied by the Ministry of Health. Today, Ministry’s head of Public Relations Office did just that and denied Ghazizadeh’s claim. Jahanpur said, “There have been 70+ mutations in Iran since the epidemic began, but none of them has been significant. There’s no “Iranian variant,” we’ve only had UK variant so far.” In another interview and as FDA Spokesman, Jahanpur stated 250,000 doses of Sinopharm which were “gifted” to Iran will arrive in the next 24 hours.
Saeed Namaki was in Qom today, saying there’s potential for different mutations in Iran, since each province is like a European country in terms of genetic variance. While that might be true, it’s probably a preface to announcing new mutations in Iran. In the past, he denied reports of UK variants in Iran at first, but then reported confirmed cases himself. Mr. Health Minister warned there shouldn’t be any nepotism in receiving coronavirus vaccine shot, suggesting there might have been such cases. There are unofficial reports that he took the backdoor and ran away from clerics who wanted to question him about “his hypocrisy in managing COVID-19” in the past year.
Ministry of Health Spokesperson presented her daily manipulated figures as usual, despite Iran Medical Board officials reporting the real numbers are at least 3 times higher. Sima Sadat Lari announced 81 COVID-19 deaths in Iran in the past 24 hours while 7,975 tested positive for the novel coronavirus. She expressed her worry about the next wave with reduction in people following protocols. Testing remains in the 59,000 PCR daily test while critical cases rise again. Active cases continue to increase as seen on the graphs.
R0: 4.12
Total: 1,623,159 (+7,975)
Dead: 59,980 (+81)
Recovered: 1,386,534
Critical: 3,729 (+9)
Admitted: 176,645 (+1,282)
Tests: 10,793,788 (13.0% of the population, assuming each test was performed on 1 person)
Cover: Mina Noei
