The second biggest city in Iran, Mashhad, capital of Khorasan Razavi province is upgraded to “yellow.” According to officials, people abiding by protocols have fallen to under 75%. They say the decline in COVID-19 cases has stopped, flattened and now an uptrend has started. Head of Ahvaz Medical University announced 4 cities in Khuzestan, including Ahvaz and Abadan, have turned yellow due to increasing number of cases. He mentioned the report of UK fast-spreading variant in the province is a red alarm to be vigilant! Other provinces, including Tehran, Kohgiloyeh, Ilam, Kermanshah, North Khorasan, Fars and Qazvin report rising walk-in cases and hospitalizations.
Despite all warning, Friday Prayers were held across the country where most of the Sermons were dedicated to denouncing US-Iran negotiations on nuclear deal! According to Khamenei representatives, Iranians must continue to resist the pressure, while people are struggling with poverty and Khamenei has banned importing US, UK and France made coronavirus vaccines due to the animosity between Islamic Republic and the rest of the world!
On the other hand, FDA Spokesman said Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccines could be imported from Europe, Russia or India, as long as the origin of the batches is not US or UK! Jahanpur said a vaccine from a European country other than UK, one from India and one from China will be approved to be imported soon. He didn’t mention any name but Minoo Mohraz had hinted at AstraZeneca to be the “European and Indian” vaccine!
After the death of Mehrdad Minavand, former Iran National Soccer Team player, due to COVID-19 and rumors that he contracted coronavirus in an IRIB studio, head of Public Relations Office of Iran Medical Council said, “Minavand won’t be the last one. There is no control over implementation of protocols in studios around the country. Masks are not worn properly and social distancing doesn’t exist.”
Sima Sadat Lari announced her daily undercounted data. Ministry of Health Spokesperson reported 71 COVID-19 deaths in the past 24 hours in Iran while 6,573 have tested positive for the novel coronavirus. She made a mistake in total number of infections since the epidemic began in Iran, but issued a correction after an hour. Testing has decreased about 3,000 compared to yesterday. Positivity rate keeps rising, it rose from 11.88% yesterday to 12.68% today.
Basic Reproduction Rate (R0) and graphs continue to be the best indicators of more than 11 months coronavirus crisis in Iran.
R0: 4.19
Total: 1,405,414 (+6,573)
Dead: 57,807 (+71)
Recovered: 1,196,374
Critical: 3,990 (-28)
Admitted: 151,233 (+103)
Tests: 9,176,899 (11.0% of the population, assuming each test was performed on 1 person)
Cover: Mohammadali Asadi
