Saeed Namaki, Islamic Republic’s Health Minister, in a video conference with the heads of Medical Universities across the country said, “Even in places we thought we had passed the first peak, we hadn’t. We’re still experiencing the first peak. Coronavirus has 1000 faces and is very complicated. It may respond to a protocol in one place but not in another.” He continued, “We must agree that coronavirus is not finished and help people understand that.” He claimed, “Since the beginning of epidemic in China, I told my deputies and colleagues that this virus is very different from any virus you’ve ever seen. I, as an immunologist, believe this is a “Camel-Cow-Panther” that can bite, kick and attack you with its horns.” He said, “We can see its different manifestations in different climates, backgrounds and ethnicities.” He noted, “87% of COVID-19 patients have had a preexisting condition, diabetes or were overweight. We must not let our hospitals get overwhelmed! We should focus on people over 60, the ones with prior conditions and obese.” He added, “We have to pay more attention to fall since flu and COVID-19 could manifest concurrently. We’re trying to get flu vaccine more than 10 times of last year. The demand for it has increased significantly but we’ll do our best to vaccinate susceptible groups.” In his remarks, he mentioned the virus could be part of our daily lives until 2022!
Namaki, was one of the people who since day 1 of the outbreak downplayed the seriousness of COVID-19, “People should not worry, coronavirus is just like Flu,” and this campaign included many officials. There wasn’t a day when somebody wouldn’t say this exact line on national TV, for a period of at least a few weeks. One of Namaki’s deputies said this, “Corona in the most optimistic state will be with us until Nowruz (March 20) and in the most pessimistic state until the end of May and even June.” When the magnitude of the crisis hit people and slowly everybody came to know this was all a lie, Namaki, like Rouhani, in 180-degree rotation, started saying, “We’re not to take this lightly, this is very serious…this is going to be with us for a long time.” When pandemic reached US and the number of deaths soared, Islamic Republic officials, including Khamenei, Rouhani and Namaki, started comparing the “great job” they’ve done with poor management in US and parts of EU. Namaki even said, “We’re 5-0 ahead in the match.” For whatever reason, the officials insist on saying this uncontrolled surge in number of deaths and cases is part of the “first wave.” Although, it’s obvious they’re trying their best to show this is not their fault and premature reopenings,… has nothing to do with it, in order to control people’s outrage at the incompetency of the government, but the fact remains: Do something NOW before more people are lost, we’ll call it whatever you like!
As predicted, another 2,368 confirmed cases and 116 deaths since yesterday were announced by Sima Sadat Lari. And as usual, a few critical provinces have fallen off from her list of provinces in red situation. She only announced Khuzestan, Hormozgan, Kermanshah and East Azerbaijan, while Kerman, Bushehr, Kurdistan, Lorestan, Golestan, Markazi, Zanjan, West Azerbaijan, Gilan, Isfahan and Sistan-Baluchestan officials have all announced surge in their novel coronavirus cases and deaths, and sounding the alarms. Some of them, like Hormozgan are worried the system is incapable of handling the overwhelming numbers and healthcare staff are warning about collapse of the underdeveloped healthcare system in their province. 300 of them blamed Rouhani for his premature and wrong decisions in managing the crisis in an open letter demaning immediate quarantine of Hormozgan. They wrote, “When the president called Hormozgan as a “white” province, we had expected these dark days.”
Golestan is the newest one on the list with more than 38 suspected children admitted and more than 75% of its hospital beds occupied by COVID-19 patients across the province. Head of Golestan Medical University believes the main reason behind it is lifting restrictions too early and normalizing the disease for people. Fazel continued, “We have reimposed some of the restrictions such as closure of parks, weekly markets, cancelling universities’ exams, wedding venues and restaurants in red cities. If people don’t follow health protocols, all restrictions will be back.”
In the meantime, the Ministry of Science announced September 5 as the start of school year if universities choose to start earlier. Classes will be held online as much as possible, and in-person attendance should be required if it’s absolutely necessary. The dormitories will stay at half capacities. Ministry of Education which is responsible for schools also announced its plans for the new school year. The Minister said, “We have devised different plans depending on the situation. But in crowded cities with crowded schools, students will be divided into 2 groups, each going to school every other day.”
Catastrophic management of COVID-19, widespread corruption, oppression and brutality in Islamic Republic have caused suffering for millions of Iranians on a daily basis, and it’s getting worse by the day. People are in dire living situation and the regime is in fear of losing the power! We should be waiting for a spark causing Iran and probably the already volatile region to explode!
893 Iranians have died of the deadly virus in the past 8 days, that’s 111.6 on average! If nothing changes this could lead to an additional 3,349 deaths in the next 30 days! If this is not a human catastrophe, what is?! Basic Reproduction Rate (R0) and graphs show the scale of the disaster and indicate this is not going to stop for now, and this is just based on their fake and manipulated numbers!
R0: 1.27
Total: 204,952 (+2,368)
Dead: 9,623 (+116)
Healed: 163,591
Critical: 2,887 (+45)
Admitted: 31,738 (+45)
Tests: 1,423,407 (Number of labs wasn’t mentioned in today’s news. Officials may have finally figured out there are discrepancies when they lie.)
