Islamic Republic Health Minister confirmed COVID-19 cases in Iran have quadrupled in the past 2 weeks. Eynollahi reported “more than 2,000” Omicron cases in the country and admitted due to low number of sequencing, the real figure is much higher. He warned about the Omicron becoming the dominant variant in Iran.
Head of Virology Research Center at Beheshti University sounded the alarm for the sixth wave of COVID-19 in Iran. Dr. Naji advised the officials to reimplement all restrictions before a catastrophe happens. He estimated late February as the peak of the next wave. Despite that warning the Education Minister emphasized on in-person classes.
According to official definition of “full vaccination” and Ministry of Health data, since February 9, only 14,013,465 (16.68% of Iran population) are vaccinated against COVID-19 with these vaccines. The majority of shots used in Iran are the ineffective Sinopharm and failed COVIran Barekat. WHO recommends 3 doses of Sinopharm to be effective against Delta but studies have found the vaccine ineffective against Omicron. It is worth mentioning, Khamenei banned US and UK made vaccines in January to promote his own foundation’s COVIran Barekat.
The Ministry of Health Spokesperson claimed 20 have died of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours and 5,276 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. Active cases begin to rise too. Professor of Epidemiology at Tehran University believes these numbers must be multiplied by 7 and Civil Registration Organization data show more than 317,000 have died of the disease since February 2020. Graphs illustrate the ongoing crisis in Iran and forming of the new wave.
R0: 1.48
Total: 6,241,843 (+5,276)
Dead: 132,172 (+20)
Recovered: 6,075,730
Critical: 1,228 (-19)
Active Cases: 33,941 (+2,938)
Total Tests: 43,865,395
Cover: Majid Khahi