Tehran Governor admitted the fifth wave of coronavirus is way worse than the previous ones because it is dominated by the Delta (Indian) variant. Bandpey elaborated all metrics including cases, hospitalizations and deaths are increasing at the same time! He also confirmed the vaccines are not as effective on this strain and demanded the Ministry of Health to allocate more budget to PCR testing, which has been halved in recent weeks. The Governor asked the Ministry to refrain from “manipulation of stats” and “not blame provinces for making the wrong decisions!” Dr. Tavakoli, member of Tehran Corona Combating Committee reported about 1,500 COVID-19 hospitalizations every day in the capital. He added hospitals are running out of beds, especially in ICUs.
Sistan-Baluchestan continues to struggle with the Delta variant and shortage of water, oxygen, physician and vaccine. According to its representative at the Islamic Republic “parliament,” Attorney General of the province has filed a lawsuit against Saeed Namaki for his “blatant lies”. Locals report hospitals in Iranshahr and Saravan forcefully discharged many critical patients before Health Minister’s trip to the province in order to downplay the humanitarian catastrophe. The reports indicate, 5 of those died in their homes.
Other provinces also report steep rise in cases, hospitalizations and deaths. Kermanshah officials say experiencing the fifth wave is “inevitable,” Hormozgan reports decrease in compliance with protocols while Fars officials warn about acceleration of the fifth wave and report 70% of their hospital beds are occupied by COVID-19 patients.
Despite all the warnings, Islamic Republic continues its religious gatherings. Following yesterday’s widespread crowds, today, to encourage people to get married and have children to “increase Shia population,” according to Khamenei’s order, on the occasion of “Ali and Fathemeh wedding anniversary” from more than 1400 years ago, Islamic Propaganda Organization arranged a ceremony in one of Tehran’s squares. Even Islamic Republic’s Speaker of the “parliament” inaugurated the first “Islamic dating app” in Iran.
In the meantime, the slow and chaotic vaccination process has made Iran 144th in the world! Even not all healthcare workers have received a single shot yet. According to Zanjan officials, 20% of their nurses are still unvaccinated. CEO of Taxi Drivers Organization in Tehran announced 40-50 deaths per month among taxi drivers and rebuked the government for not vaccinating them. Roshani said 425 died of COVID-19 in Tehran alone, since the epidemic started in February 2020 until June 22, 2021.
Ministry of Health data indicate total of 7,057,257 shots have been administered in Iran since February 9, 2021, while only 2,149,712 (2.55% of population) have received both doses of Covaxin (Indian), AstraZeneca (COVAX), Sputnik V (Russia) and Sinopharm (China). In the past few days, COVIran Barekat, the unproven “homegrown” vaccine, has also been added to the pipeline. Islamic Republic authorities have been promising different dates for mass immunizations and keep pushing it back. They also keep making bold claims about the number of doses produced in the country which have never been delivered.
Iran Medical Board officials estimate the real number of COVID-19 cases and deaths are at least 3 times higher than the daily reports by the Ministry of Health. The Spokesperson claimed 182 died of COVID-19 in Iran in the past 24 hours and 20,829 tested positive for the novel coronavirus. Sima Sadat Lari confirmed the intensified increase in stats. She reported 10% rise in deaths, 17% in hospitalizations and 40% in cases during last week from the week before. Critical and active cases soar as seen on the graphs.
R0: 2.83
Total: 3,394,279 (+20,829)
Dead: 86,041 (+182)
Recovered: 3,041,541
Critical: 3,790 (+106)
Active Cases: 266,697 (+5,017)
Tests: 24,594,420 (29.2% of the population, assuming each test was performed on 1 person)
Cover: Mohammad Nesaei
