Saeed Namaki “hopes” the vaccination would begin in Iran by February 10, which coincides with the 42nd anniversary of 1979 Islamic Republic! He added, “But, we will only import the vaccines from the best and most reliable sources.” He continued, “We will become one of the best producer of coronavirus vaccine in the world.” He expressed his concern over normalization, reduction in adhering to the protocols and beginning of the next peak, as number of walk-ins and admissions have increased in the country.
Namaki said, “Some are being stubborn and not pay attention.” As usual, he praised himself, his work and plans to fight the virus which has been raging through Iran for more than 11 months! The Health Minister also confirmed the 6th case of UK fast-spreading variant. He mentioned all 6 and their families and contacts are in good condition.
While COVAX remains the best source for Islamic Republic to receive COVID-19 vaccine, especially after Khamenei banned vaccines made in US, UK and France, FDA Spokesman told reporters COVAX has not yet distributed any vaccine and “we are going to have 16.8 million doses from them. There are 18 companies providing coronavirus vaccine to the COVAX basket, and we will at least receive doses from 3 of them.” Jahanpur continued, “We weren’t the first in distribution of the vaccine but we will be the first to finish inoculating the population.” COVID-19 vaccine chaos continues!
On January 16, in the weekly National Task Force, Deputy Health Minister in Health Affairs and Task Force Spokesman, Dr. Raisi, presented his report about places with least number of people following the health protocols. He mentioned Qom and its Friday Prayers as one of the worse places, saying, “In Qom, nobody follows the rules. Only 30% of people wear mask. The people who organize these gatherings are responsible for the deaths in the next peak and should be held accountable.” Two days later, one of the religious bodies in Qom wrote a letter to Health Minister called Raisi’s action as “Qom Intimidation” and demanded him to be removed and arrested for his comments!
Other clerics repeated the same notion, one said, “The Spokesman opened his mouth and insulted Qom.” The pressure continued until Raisi was forced to issue an apology in an audio file, saying, “There has been some misunderstandings. I apologize from all people of Qom, the clerics and Friday Prayer Imams.” He said, “Whatever I said was to help preventing more COVID-19 cases and for people’s health.”
Sima Sadat Lari presented her daily undercounted and manufactured data. The Ministry of Health Spokesperson announced 84 COVID-19 deaths and 6,182 positive coronavirus PCR tests in the past 24 hours in Iran. As graphs illustrate, that’s another increase in the number of cases. Active cases also increased while critical ones decreased. Testing remains in the same range but positivity rate is on the rise. It increased from 10.87% yesterday to 11.41% today.
R0: 4.20
Total: 1,348,316 (+6,182)
Dead: 57,057 (+84)
Recovered: 1,137,812
Critical: 4,214 (-58)
Admitted: 153,447 (+169)
Tests: 8,688,732 (10.4% of the population, assuming each test was performed on 1 person)
Cover: Ali Shabani
