While Islamic Republic Ministry of Health updated the list of “high risk” areas and added 23 new counties to the “red” cities totaling 143, the man in charge of the Ministry denied all horrifying reports from Sistan-Baluchestan by local and representatives of the province, saying “everybody is saying garbage!” Saeed Namaki even claimed there are about 600 empty beds in the province while it has been days that local representatives at the Islamic Consultative Assembly have been saying the few available hospitals in the region are all filled with COVID-19 patients.
Mr. Health Minister, whose promises have been proven to be just words with no results throughout 17months of coronavirus crisis in Iran, claimed the mass immunization will begin “soon” and “considerable amount of vaccines will be imported next week.” It is notable, he had promised 14 million would be vaccinated by June 22 and then July 22! According to the Ministry of Health data, since February 9, total of 6,658,695 shots have been administered while only 2,128,850 (2.53% of Iran population) are fully vaccinated. Saeed Namaki also claimed COVIran Barekat doses have been distributed across the country and are being administered since yesterday.
On the other hand, Mohseni-Bandpey, a member of Health Commission at Islamic Consultative Assembly acknowledged people’s concern and protests about dripping vaccination, mismanagement of the coronavirus crisis and even hinting at the sixth wave, but invited them to “calm down!” He said people should be patient and follow protocols, “God willing, by September 21, vaccination will speed up!” Yet another date with empty words and false hopes! Even then, that is another 2 months away, with more than 130 dying every day based on underreported figures of the regime, and fifth wave with Delta (Indian) variant just getting started.
In the meantime, the fifth wave of COVID-19 continues raging through the country and putting hospitals on high alert to be prepared for scores of patients. East Azerbaijan joins the long list of provinces with increasing number of cases while Fars continues to record spikes in hospitalizations.
Ministry of Health Spokesperson announced her manipulated data which Iran Medical Board officials dismissed a long time ago, estimating the real numbers are at least 3 times higher. Sima Sadat Lari claimed 16,596 tested positive for the novel coronavirus in the past 24 hours in Iran and 146 died of COVID-19. She failed to provide any specifics on variants, especially Delta cases. As graphs illustrate, active and critical cases continue to rise.
R0: 2.82
Total: 3,344,122 (+16,596)
Dead: 85,543 (+146)
Recovered: 2,995,195
Critical: 3,506 (+86)
Active Cases: 263,384 (+2,274)
Tests: 24,358,872 (29.0% of the population, assuming each test was performed on 1 person)
Cover: Koosha Mahshid Falahi
