Friday and another media blackout by the officials. However, in the daily news where Kianoush Jahanpour, Ministry of Health Spokesman, announces the daily cases, confirmed red situation in Khuzestan and alarming circumstances in Hormozgan, Kurdistan, Kerman, Kermanshah, Bushehr, East and West Azerbaijan. He keeps removing a couple of provinces from the list so it doesn’t look that long, for example, Lorestan, Yazd, Sistan-Baluchestan, Khorasan Razavi, South Khorasan, Qazvin and Isfahan were among that list days before. In addition, today, Hamedan, Gilan and Mazandaran officials announced increased cases in their provinces, making 18 of 31 provinces in red or alarming situation. However, the government still doesn’t want to reimpose restrictions or admit they’ve been doing something wrong but insist it’s all people’s faults.
Islamic Republic Ministry of Health tries to keep the facade and pretend everything is OK. That’s why people would think crisis is under control and tend to not take it as seriously as before, and this cycle continues. Today, the Ministry announced 155 “white”, 245 “yellow” and only 58 “red” counties. Of the 31 province capitals, 23 are designated “yellow”, 1 as “white” and 7 as “red”. Shiraz, Fars capital, is the only white one, while Mashhad, Uromiyeh, Kermanshah, Bushehr, Birjand, Sanandaj and Bandar Abbas are red. The rest, including Tehran, Isfahan, Kerman, Karaj, Ahvaz, … are considered yellow. However, few days ago, Khuzestan Governor has included Ahvaz in red cities in the critical province. Tehran has seen increase in cases in the past few days as well. But for the Ministry, fooling people with numbers has been a main strategy in “controlling” the COVID-19’s human catastrophe.
Head of Shiraz Transportation Company announced 47 taxi drivers have tested positive for the novel coronavirus. Assuming these drivers have been working during their illness (since they were asymptomatic and weren’t tested before), imagine the exponential spread of the virus just by these drivers. By the way, as a reminder, Shiraz is considered the only “white” province capital in the country!
2,886 new cases and 63 deaths since yesterday were announced today. Graphs, reproduction rate (R0) and growth factors all point to the second wave of epidemic but Islamic Republic is more busy with George Floyd and what’s happening in the US than people dying every day under their nose.
R0: 1.25
Total: 167,156 (+2,886)
Dead: 8,134 (+63)
Healed: 129,741
Critical: 2,573 (+4)
Admitted: 29,281 (+567)
Tests: 1,040,289 (Number of labs wasn’t mentioned in today’s news. Officials may have finally figured out there are discrepancies when they lie.)
Iran International Death Toll: 13,193 (Last updated on April 25)
