National COVID-19 Task Force Spokesman repeated his claim that if domestic vaccines are approved, “all age groups” will receive their first shots by December! Dr. Raisi confirmed that the remaining few thousand vaccines are being used as second shots mostly and promised as soon as more vaccines arrive, the next age group (65+) will be prioritized. It is worth noting, even for healthcare workers and other high risk jobs such as firefighters, no vaccines has been allocated.
Head of the Islamic Republic FDA criticized the private sector for meddling in the vaccination process. He said nowhere in the world private companies could purchase shots and they only made the price go higher in some cases! Dr. Shanehsaz claimed homegrown vaccines will enter the market by next week after a speedy approval. He said the vaccines approval will take 24-48 hours. Shanehsaz also claimed from June 22, 3 million doses will be available and this capacity will grow exponentially over next months. He asserted that by fall, all eligible groups will be vaccinated by the use of domestic and foreign vaccines! According to officials, the second dose will be administered based on the stock, a mix of shots, as long as something is in available!
According to Ministry of Health, since February 9, only 706,695 (0.84% of population) have received both doses of either Covaxin, Sputnik V, AstraZeneca or Sinopharm. In the meantime, total of 4,987,963 shots have been administered. Islamic Republic officials entered the vaccine market later than many countries, Khamenei banned US and UK made vaccines, and despite US donating 500million doses to other countries, it looks like Iran cannot receive any!
On the other hand, more provinces report rising number of cases and COVID-19 deaths. Even Ministry of Health warns about the “next wave.” Zanjan Medical University sounded the alarm for the fifth wave in the province. Ghezelbash cited the reduction in protocols compliance and increasing number of outpatients as alarming signs. Fars recorded spike in deaths and warned about an uptrend in infection rate. Dr. Hemmati stated the Indian (Delta) and South African (Beta) variants could be the culprit in the next wave, and asked officials to do more to prevent the spread of these dangerous strains to other provinces.
While Khuzestan officials state the province may turn “red” at any moment, Ebrahim Raisi, one of the “candidates” for the regime’s sham “elections,” organizes a crowded gathering with no protocols followed in Ahvaz, Khuzestan. Others who campaign for him, have been doing the same for days, across Iran.
Ministry of Health Spokesperson claimed 10,598 tested positive for the novel coronavirus in Iran in the past 24 hours while 157 died of COVID-19. Sima Sadat Lari failed to mention specifics about the variants, despite Indian (Delta) and South African (Beta) cases being confirmed in at least 8 provinces, including Tehran. Iran Medical Board and other officials have dismissed the daily numbers, estimating the real numbers are at least 3 times higher. The graphs show the utter failure of Islamic Republic in managing the COVID-19 crisis in Iran in the past 16 months.
R0: 2.93
Total: 2,990,714 (+10,598)
Dead: 81,519 (+157)
Recovered: 2,590,682
Critical: 3,584 (-36)
Active Cases: 318,513 (-1,978)
Tests: 21,065,451 (25.0% of the population, assuming each test was performed on 1 person)
Cover: Tasnimnews
