There is nothing stopping Omicron in Iran. COVID-19 cases continue to rise across Iran, experts warning about shortage of ICU beds, especially for children and Islamic Republic pushing for in-person classes in schools and universities. Tehran, Shiraz and Mashhad become “orange” even in the flawed “coloring” system of the Ministry of Health, indicating hospitalizations are on a steep rise.
Meanwhile, Ministry of Health is going to make the 3rd dose of COVID-19 vaccination to become mandatory. Dr. Farhadi mentioned 9 groups of businesses such as movie theaters, gyms, stadiums, and wedding venues which might face “some restrictions”! Abadan Medical College announced COVID-19 cases have quadrupled in the past 2 weeks in southwest Khuzestan. Ardabil reported surge in hospitalizations. And Fars follows the same line.
While Iranians have refused to receive their 2nd and 3rd doses for months due to the deepening mistrust between people and the regime and the ineffective vaccines used in Iran, Mashhad Medical University announced administering AstraZeneca to people under 50 is banned due to its complications. Poland, like more than 10 other countries, donated 2million doses of its unused AstraZeneca to the regime 3 days ago, which have already found their ways to the black market. AstraZeneca has been banned in European countries for months and used in Iran without any warning, but now that the regime needs to push its “domestic” shots, AstraZeneca’s complications become known to the officials. However, many who like to travel to foreign countries cannot use the “homegrown” vaccines because none of them are recognized internationally.
According to official definition of “full vaccination” and Ministry of Health data, since February 9, only 16,175,768 (19.25% 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 23 have died of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours and 16,757 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: 1.62
Total: 6,310,452 (+16,757)
Dead: 132,356 (+23)
Recovered: 6,095,414
Critical: 1,323 (+29)
Active Cases: 82,682 (+13,200)
Total Tests: 44,516,027
Cover: Ali Haddadi-Asl
