Red and orange are back to the “colored map” of Iran, which shows increasing COVID-19 hospitalizations across the country. According to the latest update by the Ministry of Health, the flawed system which is only based on hospitalization per 100,000 population, shows 7 “red” cities, 43 “orange,” 217 “yellow” and 181 “blue!” That is a significant warning sign from days before where no red or orange city were on the map! The Islamic Republic officials have ignored experts’ warnings since November about surge of Omicron and reopened all businesses, schools and universities and insist on keeping them open amid 5-digit daily cases and alarms going off from all corners of the country.
Islamic Republic Health Minister confirms Iran has entered its sixth wave of COVID-19, dominated by Omicron. Eynollahi, however, only recommends people to receive their vaccines, especially their 3rd dose and fails to reimpose the restrictions. Deputy Head of Tehran Corona Combating Committee reported 100% increase in outpatient COVID-19 cases in the capital compared to 2 weeks ago! Omicron cases have risen 10 times in 1 week in Kohgiloyeh-Boyerahmad. Fars reports surge in hospitalizations. Yazd, one of the regions hit hard by Omicron, continues to report uptrend in hospital admissions. Lorestan, Qazvin and East Azerbaijan send out the same red signals!
According to official definition of “full vaccination” and Ministry of Health data, since February 9, only 15,936,852 (18.97% 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. That has brought the mistrust between people and the regime to a whole new level. AstraZeneca is scarce in the country, even after Poland donated another 1million doses to the regime on January 25, 2022. IRGC is known to pour the products in high-demand, such as reliable COVID-19 vaccines, to black markets to reap the profit!
The Ministry of Health Spokesperson claimed 30 have died of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours and 14,285 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 318,000 have died of the disease since February 2020. Graphs illustrate the ongoing crisis in Iran and forming of the new wave.
R0: 1.58
Total: 6,293,695 (+14,285)
Dead: 132,333 (+30)
Recovered: 6,091,880
Critical: 1,294 (+27)
Active Cases: 69,482 (+10,742)
Total Tests: 44,418,963
Cover: Alireza Masoumi
