The Islamic Republic President admitted Delta variant of coronavirus has spread throughout the country and “the COVID-19 situation is worse than a few weeks ago!” Hassan Rouhani also confessed to the slow vaccination process and general shortage of vaccines in Iran. He claimed 500,000 doses per day is “possible”, however, stopped short of confirming his Health Minister who had claimed 400,000 shots would be administered from today! According to official Ministry of Health data, in the past 24 hours, 68,106 doses went into arms. Additionally, in an analysis, Mehrnews concluded that daily vaccination capacity in the country is between 200-300,000 doses.
The National COVID-19 Task Force Spokesman also confirms the Delta variant is wildly spreading across Iran and 25 of 31 provinces are experiencing a spike in their cases and hospitalizations. While in the past each age group with 5-year difference was being announced for their vaccination turn, it is every 2-year now! Dr. Raisi said vaccination for 68+ will begin on Monday. However, the dripping number of doses being administered and the centralized information system have made it difficult to know how many foreign or “homegrown” shots have been administered so far! There are evidences pointing towards the fact that there is no “domestic” vaccine at all and it is all about money making avenues for the regime. Raisi claimed 40,000 COVIran Barekat have been used to date and claimed by July 22, everybody above 60 will receive shots.
Officials have announced arrival of another 500,00 doses, without mentioning the origin, and promised another 440,000 for tomorrow. According to FDA Spokesman, 2.9 million doses will arrive by next week while “around 3million are on the way from Norway, Japan and China.” Officials refuse to mention the names of vaccines. Dr. Jahanpur claimed vaccination will speed up from today by relying on these shipments and “the first batch of domestic vaccines.”
Ministry of Health announced total of 6,726,801 shots have been administered in Iran since February 9, while only 2,134,662 are fully vaccinated.
Deputy Health Minister Harirchi said in the next “3 months” the vaccination capacity will improve! He also announced 40% rise in cases, 17% in hospitalizations and 10% in COVID-19 deaths from last week. Harirchi admitted 74% of the country is considered “high risk!” His statistics differ from what Ministry of Health Spokesperson has been announcing every day and is visible on the graphs. He also named Hormozgan as the hot spot for the coronavirus in Iran. Hormozgan Medical University announced the province is faced with shortage of hospital beds! Sistan-Baluchestan continues to suffer too, while Health Minister and the “president” deny the facts on the ground!
The video showing CCU patients “expiring” in a hospital during a blackout has caused a lot of commotion among Islamic Republic officials. Health Minister called it a “blatant lie” and head of Mashih Daneshvari hospital in Tehran reprimanded Dr. Hashemian who published the viral video on his instagram and criticized the government for its mismanagement of COVID-19 crisis in Iran in the past 17 months. Dr. Velayati, in a letter, threatened Dr. Hashemian to a “more serious reaction” if he continues rebuking the healthcare system! Even Islamic Republic President called the video a lie and claimed all hospitals in Iran have backup generators.
However, Dr. Kermanpour, Director of Public Relations Office at Iran Medical Board, refuted that claim and said, not all hospitals have backup generators, even if they did, they are mostly outdated and even then, they cannot withstand long blackouts. He made it clear that it is possible for patients in ICU and CCU wards to expire during blackouts.
Ministry of Health Spokesperson claimed 151 died of COVID-19 in Iran in the past 24 hours and 11,664 tested positive for the novel coronavirus. Sima Sadat Lari refused to provide any details on variants. Iran Medical Board believes the real stats are at least 3 times higher than the daily reports.
R0: 2.82
Total: 3,355,786 (+11,664)
Dead: 85,694 (+151)
Recovered: 3,010,090
Critical: 3,602 (+96)
Active Cases: 260,002 (-3,382)
Tests: 24,437,503 (29.1% of the population, assuming each test was performed on 1 person)
