Provincial officials from across Iran express their worry over “people assuming everything is normal” and the crowded “end of the year markets” which people frequent every year from February to Persian New Year on March 21. Kermanshah Governor said the littlest negligence could turn our New Year celebration to mourning! The province’s health authorities warn if the current path continues, “we’ll be caught by the fourth coronavirus wave soon.” In addition to yesterday reports, Kohgiloyeh-Boyerahmad officials say the current rise in infections, admissions and ICU patients in the province is a sign of the next wave of COVID-19 starting. Khuzestan reported 9 cities have been upgraded to “yellow” from “blue.”
Saeed Namaki admitted the number of walk-ins has increased across the country, including Tehran! He said this would lead to more hospitalizations and deaths in near future. At the same time, he claimed, “we have contained coronavirus in Iran which is the source of pride for us when US and other countries are still struggling.” The Islamic Republic Health Minister added, “AstraZeneca is providing 4.2million doses of coronavirus vaccine through COVAX system in February. We have made deals with the most reliable sources and soon inoculations will start according to priorities.” According to other officials Sputnik V is supposed to arrive tomorrow, while Namaki says by the end of spring, COVIran Barekat will be ready!
It’s worth noting, AstraZeneca has faced hiccups in its obligations to EU countries! The pharmaceutical company is British and collaborated with Oxford University to produce its coronavirus vaccine! Khamenei had banned vaccines made in US, UK and France.
Ali Ansarian is the second popular soccer player who passed away today from COVID-19 in Tehran. Social media users blamed Khamenei and Islamic Republic regime for not purchasing coronavirus vaccine on time and from reliable sources, like many neighboring countries.
After almost a year of coronavirus ravaging through Iran and tens of thousands have lost their lives, including more than 200 medical staff, majority of nurses and healthcare workers have not been paid their benefits, wages and overtime! A member of Islamic Consultative Assembly Health Commission has asked authorities to pay their dues as soon as possible! Every few months an official has made a comment along those lines but nobody has ever delivered.
Ministry of Health Spokesperson provided her daily undercounted and manipulated statistics. Sima Sadat Lari announced 79 COVID-19 deaths and 6,870 coronavirus infections in the past 24 hours in Iran! Lari said the same number of red (0), orange (18), yellow (124) and blue (306) counties exist in the country. She reported all orange counties are in Mazandaran and Gilan, north of Iran. However, the 9 cities in Khuzestan, SW Iran, were not mentioned. Testing remains in the same range while positivity rate increased once again, from 12.46% yesterday to 12.56%.
Basic Reproduction Rate (R0) and graphs continue to be the best indicators of past, present and future of COVID-19 crisis in Iran during the past 12 months! They vividly show not only the crisis is not contained but it is entering a new wave!
R0: 4.17
Total: 1,438,286 (+6,870)
Dead: 58,189 (+79)
Recovered: 1,229,391
Critical: 3,838 (-27)
Admitted: 150,706 (+597)
Tests: 9,449,658 (11.3% of the population, assuming each test was performed on 1 person)
Cover: Behrooz Khalili
