As politicians line behind Khamenei supporting his order to ban US and UK made COVID-19 vaccines for Iranians, health experts continue to raise their concern that any delay in vaccination would cost more Iranian lives! The number of cases and deaths increased compared to the day before. Sima Sadat Lari announced 91 COVID-19 deaths in the past 24 hours in Iran while 6,208 tested positive for coronavirus. The Ministry of Health data has been widely questioned and discredited even by officials. Chairman of Iran Medical Board has admitted the numbers could be as high as 3-4 times!
Moreover, provincial officials warn about the premature reopening of businesses. In yellow and blue cities, including Tehran, movie theaters and wedding venues have reopened! First and second graders are to attend schools in person in blue areas. Head of Tehran Corona Combating Committee sounds the alarm for Tehran! Dr. Zali said, “We must not reopen businesses and schools prematurely.” He added his team has provided authorities with a separate “coloring criteria” for Tehran due to coronavirus complications in the capital. Tehran’s situation is completely fragile. He continued, “Reopening schools would change the use of public transportation pattern and would increase the risk of coronavirus spread.”
Head of Epidemiology Subcommittee of National Task Force, Hamid Souri, confirmed Zali’s concerns saying, “COVID-19 situation in Iran is very fragile. The strategy to fight the virus is very expensive and relaxing restrictions have been hasty.” He called the premature reopenings “very dangerous.” Especially after Saeed Namaki confirmed 4 new cases of the UK fast-spreading variant in the country.
Nursing staff of private hospitals in East Azerbaijan gathered outside Governor’s office demanding their unpaid wages and benefits to be paid as soon as possible.
Basic Reproduction Rate (R0) and graphs remain best indicators of the past 11 months with Iran grappling with a human catastrophe, even though they’re based on manipulated data provided by Islamic Republic!
R0: 4.20
Total: 1,292,614 (+6,208)
Dead: 56,262 (+91)
Recovered: 1,081,736
Critical: 4,568 (-96)
Admitted: 154,616 (-732)
Tests: 8,207,975 (9.9% of the population, assuming each test was performed on 1 person)
Cover: Alireza Mohammadi
