While all officials from different government agencies and health experts warn people not to think everything is back to normal and “remember the 3-digit COVID-19 deaths,” government is opening gyms, pools and schools, putting all the blame for the next peak on people! Just like what happened in April, November and according to predictions, will happen again by the end of February, a new peak of coronavirus infections in Iran.
Dr. Fahimzadeh, an infectious disease fellow at Mofid Hospital in Tehran, warned about premature reopenings and in-person classes at schools, saying, “The next peak which could happen by the end of February to mid-March would be worse than the third peak because of the new mutations in the novel coronavirus.” He added, “Reopening schools will lead to increasing number of cases among children and then their families.”
Islamic Republic Health Minister expressed his concern over normalization of the situation, travels between provinces and variants of coronavirus which could happen at any time! He also said, “The good news is, the first batch of coronavirus vaccines from a reliable source will enter Iran in the next few days and we will start immunizing according to the priorities.” He didn’t offer any details on the “reliable source” or the exact time-frame. He said, “we are in the process of importing them.” Namaki also confirmed other health experts, “The next peak would be much worse and could create such a trouble for us that we may not get out of it easily.”
While Saeed Namaki is “worried” about the traveling between provinces and “especially people to the southern islands,” his protocols and coloring of the map have created this chaos! According to the “rules,” “yellow” and “blue” residents could travel to other “blue” and “yellow” areas. As a reminder, 4 admissions per 100,000 is “yellow”, when it reaches to 6, it becomes “orange” and traveling is forbidden. Deputy Governor of Markazi commented on colors saying, “We shouldn’t rely on the colors. We must continue to follow the protocols regardless of what color our city is.”
Ministry of Health Spokesperson announced her daily undercounted and manipulated data. 89 COVID-19 deaths in the past 24 hours in Iran which show an increase compared to the day before. Sima Sadat Lari also reported 5,945 tested positive for coronavirus in the same time. Testing remains in the same range. According to provincial officials from Kermanshah, Alborz, Tehran, Zanjan, Lorestan, and other provinces, walk-ins have increased across the country which is not reflected in the “official” stats.
Despite all warnings and an ongoing crisis in the country, Khamenei Representatives across the country in their Friday Prayers Sermon reminded everybody that “COVID-19 could not be an excuse to not celebrate Dahe Fajr (10-day celebrations of Islamic Revolution anniversary).” It starts from January 31 until February 10. It’s a confirmation of our reporting on Ministry of Health manipulation of data to lay the ground work for those days.
Basic Reproduction Rate (R0) and graphs continue to be the best indicators of more than 342 days of devastating situations in Iran.
R0: 4.18
Total: 1,372,977 (+5,945)
Dead: 57,383 (+89)
Recovered: 1,164,794
Critical: 4,090 (-16)
Admitted: 150,800 (-463)
Tests: 8,905,093 (10.7% of the population, assuming each test was performed on 1 person)
Cover: Matin Ghasemi
