According to the Ministry of Health Spokesperson, Mazandaran is in critical condition and “unlike the rest of the country, it shows an uptrend in the number of COVID-19 cases and deaths.” Sima Sadat Lari continued, there are currently 4 red counties in the province but the rest of the counties are in dangerous zone and will become red soon! Unfortunately, Islamic Republic stopped providing individual province’s data to reporters since March 22, therefore, there’s no way to assess the situation independently.
Kermanshah officials warn about normalization of the situation among people! Fars officials voiced the same concern. Tehran authorities joined the message saying the situation is extremely vulnerable and fragile.
Saeed Namaki confirmed the first case of the UK coronavirus variant in Iran and said he was a returning passenger from England. He said, all patient’s contacts have been checked and confirmed to be virus free. He added, “We must be very diligent not to be tangled into the mutated virus’ trap as it would break us down, like it has done to the UK.”
In the meantime, Chairman of Iran Nursing Board warned about burntout medical staff, especially nurses, and criticized the government for not delivering on their promises to hire new workforce. Mirzabeigi said, “It’s like there’s no COVID-19 in the country, they continue their bureaucratic process and as if there’s no shortage of nurse in hospitals, they don’t act fast.” He mentioned the international standard number of nurses is 3+ per bed or 1,000 people for every 24hours, but “we had agreed on 2.5. But even then, at this moment, there are only 0.7 nurse per bed in 24hours.” That’s less than 1/4 of standard and 1/3 of what have been agreed upon with the government! Mirzabeigi added, unfortunately, the government keeps adding beds to the hospitals without providing the necessary staff, and that worsens the situation.
Air pollution in metropolitan areas have been a major concern in the past few days, especially with the danger of COVID-19. Head of Ahvaz Medical University said the death rate will increase among all patients including COVID-19 cases due to the polluted air.
Religious gatherings have been a major factor in the most recent and deadliest wave of COVID-19 in Iran, it started after Muharram and Arbain ceremonies. However, this cleric believes there is ZERO cases of coronavirus in Karabala, and other Shia cities in Iraq, without residents following any health protocols! He even claims he has accurate statistics of those cities on his phone! A simple search on the internet could prove him wrong.
Sima Sadat Lari announced 98 COVID-19 deaths in the past 24 hours in Iran while 6,113 tested positive for coronavirus. According to the manipulated and undercounted data, critical cases continue to drop! While everybody agrees the number of tests must be increased and early diagnosis of cases is paramount in cutting the chain of virus spread, tests performed per day remains in the 54,000 range. After about 11 months of struggling with the virus, only 9.5% of the population have been tested!
Basic Reproduction Rate (R0) and graphs continue to be the best indicators of the coronavirus waves Iranians have faced! It’s predicted another wave will start by February!
R0: 4.24
Total: 1,255,620 (+6,113)
Dead: 55,748 (+98)
Recovered: 1,029,028
Critical: 4,829 (-72)
Admitted: 170,844 (-2,276)
Tests: 7,885,416 (9.5% of the population, assuming each test was performed on 1 person)
