COVID-19 daily deaths increase to its highest number since the beginning of outbreak in February. Sima Sadat Lari announced the widely scrutinized and undercounted numbers for the past 24 hours, 163 deaths and 2,560 new cases. She also announced 18 provinces being in serious condition, 9 of which are “red” including Khuzestan, Bushehr, Hormozgan, Kermanshah, East & West Azerbaijan, Kurdistan, Khorasan Razvi and Ilam while the other 9 are considered “alarming”, whatever that means, including Tehran, Fars, Isfahan, Mazandaran, Hamedan, Zanjan and Sisitan-Baluchestan, Alborz and Lorestan. However, Lorestan’s Medical University announced they’re 1-2 patients away from being considered “red”, and that’s the case for most other provinces as well.
An arbitrary number was chosen for each category in April to color the map, just to influence people’s minds, pretending everything is “white” or “yellow” and there are only 1/3 of the country is red! Of course, those are the most populous cities in the country. Golestan, for example, has closed banks in some parts of the province but is not even mentioned in the “alarming” list! Or a deputy head of Kohgiloyeh-Boyerahmad said the sharp increase in the number of cases and admissions in the province is extremely worrisome and this may continue for another 1-2 months, but again no name in the list. The same goes for Kerman, Ardebil and South Khorasan.
Deputy Health Minister in Health said mask is the cheapest and best way of preventing the disease. He said, “even if a vaccine is made in the next 1-2 months, which it won’t, we won’t get it for another year, so we better get used to COVID-19 and learn how to live with it!” He is the same person who said, restrictions will be reimposed again if cases increase again, but as the cases increase, nothing is happening in case of travel restrictions,… Raisi also said, “Local authorities in red areas could impose some restrictions after coordinating with the Ministry, and close high risk places for a week which could be renewed if needed.” Why wasn’t this allowed earlier?! Because the Ministry was fooling itself with their own fake stats or National Security Council didn’t allow them to?!
Dr Minoo Mohraz, a member of the National Task Force, said in an interview on TV: “The situation in one word, is dreadful. If people were infected one at the time in the past, it’s become the whole family at once. We were having it controlled in Tehran, but it’s becoming worse and worse.” She said, “People are tired of wearing mask and that’s understandable but it’s everywhere in the world. We need to educate our people more and work on them psychologically to help them pass through this difficult time.” However, she forgot to mention that the government has been the cause of all these problems, especially the psychological ones, and hasn’t done anything to address those issues.
Wearing mask has become mandatory for everybody in public indoor spaces, including taxis, subways, buses,…which according to an official in Tehran this has helped almost 98% of people wear masks in subways. The question becomes, why wasn’t this rule in effect earlier than 137 days?! More people had to die or Islamic Republic was embarrassed to admit its failure sooner but now didn’t have a choice because more and more people are showing their disgust towards regime’s policies?! Or was it too much trouble for Khamenei and Rouhani to put one on?! They were only seen to wear a mask after more than 130 days of an epidemic!
In the meantime, Judiciary department has stepped in, just like the beginning of the outbreak! This time, they’re wrapping up any weddings or funerals. In Zanjan, 3 families and a business are summoned to court. The Governor of Zanjan said, “Judiciary would use the full extent of Sharia law to deal with this kind of reckless behavior.” We all know how fair and just the Islamic Republic Judiciary really is.
The novel coronavirus rages through the country and every day more Iranians and their families suffer. All because Islamic Republic didn’t want to quarantine Qom, the epicenter, because that would have meant they had bowed to the “enemies”! They lied about the starting date, and stats since day one. The list goes on and on. The timeline of coronavirus in Iran is a good read. Graphs and Basic Reproduction Rate (R0) continue to point towards an ongoing crisis, as they have since day 1, if an officials would have cared about people’s lives, many of those deaths could have been prevented.
R0: 1.28
Total: 240,438 (+2,560)
Dead: 11,571 (+163)
Healed: 201,330
Critical: 3,168 (+32)
Admitted: 27,537 (+16)
Tests: 1,794,727 (Number of labs wasn’t mentioned in today’s news. Officials may have finally figured out there are discrepancies when they lie.)
