Islamic Republic Ministry of Health adds 53 more cities to the “red” category, bringing the total red areas to 285 comprising 64% of the entire country’s cities and in all 31 provinces. Delta variant of coronavirus has filled all hospitals throughout Iran, breaking COVID-19 records every day while regime officials brag about 400,000 doses a day vaccination with ineffective vaccines!
Hormozgan reports record breaking daily COVID-19 death toll. Mashhad physicians demanded the officials to lock down the second biggest city in the country, rebuking the government for not doing anything. “Why nobody makes any decision, why nobody is listening, more than 300 of our compatriots die every day but it seems like it has become part of the norm and officials don’t care anymore!” And Gilan authorities say 6-8,000 residents are infected on a daily basis and hospitals are flooded with patients. Dr. Dehnadi-Moghaddam reported more than 1,100 are hospitalized in Gilan hospitals. Reports from other provinces are along the same lines.
While Health Minister admits healthcare staff are under overwhelming pressure which is increasing every day, he blames late and slow vaccinations on an “ally country” which stopped providing enough vaccines “as soon as 300,000 dose/day was reached.” He was referring to Russia which was supposedly signed an agreement to send 60million doses of Sputnik V to Iran and start producing the vaccine in Iran as well, none of which happened! Not unlike Khamenei who banned US and UK made vaccines because he “didn’t trust them,” Namaki is paranoid about everybody is out there to see him fail! Saeed Namaki assured people there would be no problem in vaccines stocks as “considerable amounts will arrive next month” and domestic ones are ramping up their production!
Namaki also announced the vaccination begins for journalists, prisoners and teachers from today! However, according to reports, many healthcare workers across the country are still unvaccinated. He also claimed by August 3, more than what had been promised will be immunized. A claim which is impossible to fulfill, because “vaccinated” means 2 weeks after the second jab, not 1 dose administration as Islamic Republic officials define it. According to the official data, since February 9, total of 11,808,230 shots have been administered and only 2,628,141 (3.12% of Iran population) are fully vaccinated.
In the meantime, the private sector which was criticized by Namaki since April for being unable to import any vaccine, brought in their first batch of 320,000 doses of AstraZeneca from Russia. Naser Riahi, Chairman of Drug Importers Union, said more will arrive soon.
Besides the slow and chaotic vaccination, medicine shortage is rampant in the country, from insulin to remdesivir! This is a video from yesterday at the central 13 Aban pharmacy in Tehran amid Delta variant rampage:
Ministry of Health Spokesperson claim 292 died of COVID-19 in Iran in the past 24 hours and 34,433 tested positive for the novel coronavirus. Iran Medical Board estimates the real figures are at least 3 times higher than the daily reports. As seen on the graphs, active and critical cases are climbing higher every day, less PCR testing is performed while positivity rate broke another record and reached 54.47%.
R0: 2.92
Total: 3,826,447 (+34,433)
Dead: 90,074 (+292)
Recovered: 3,329,065
Critical: 5,296 (+91)
Active Cases: 407,308 (+15,239)
Tests: 25,795,151 (30.6% of the population, assuming each test was performed on 1 person)
Cover: Amir Kholousi
