Dr Ehsan Mostafavi, a member of Epidemiology Committee of National Corona Combating Task Force announced their most recent findings. According to him, there is a possibility that about 15,000,000 Iranians have contracted the novel coronavirus from the outset of outbreak in the country. He said second and third wave after reopening the country is well expected, “fortunately, the virulence and pathogenicity of the virus is very low in Iran compared to other countries. One of those reasons could be the lower average age in Iran which is 31, compared to Italy which is 47!” He actually disobeyed Rouhani and kind of debunked the regime’s propaganda narrative claiming they’ve managed the crisis so well that the death rate is below the world’s average. He continued, “Right now, Khuzestan, Hormozgan, East & West Azerbaijan, and Kurdistan are more involved with the disease.”
In response to a question about reimposing restrictions due to jump in infections, he said, “The decision to reopen places have been made based on many factors including social and economical issues. But as it has been said before, if we know reopening businesses has contributed to the spread, we will reimpose restrictions on province by province basis, and not the whole country.” He added, “In a serological study in Gilan in April, we found out that 33% of the population had contracted the virus. I should emphasize that those tests are not accurate for diagnostic purposes and not everyone with antibodies will have symptoms.” He continued, “If we assume that’s correct, that number must be higher today, but again, that doesn’t mean they’re all symptomatic.”
Mostafavi pointed out the same study was performed in the City of Tehran and concluded about 10% of population have been infected as of last month. He pointed out that “we have definitely passed the first peak if we look at the deaths’ graphs. We had a peak in late March, early April and since then, it’s become more stable and has remained in the same range.”
The epidemiologist confirmed the “slight uptrend” in Iran in the report ending on June 6. He said, “13 provinces including East Azerbaijan, Hormozgan, Yazd, Qom, Markazi, Kurdistan, Bushehr, Fars, South Khorasan, Hamedan, Golestan, Kerman and Kohgiluyeh-Boyerahmad show a start to a new peak. Khuzestan, Chaharmahal-Bakhtiari, Isfahan, Zanjan, West Azerbaijan, Ilam, Khorasan Razavi indicate they are on the way to a slight uptrend. Kermanshah and Tehran are stable with small changes. North Khorasan, Alborz and Sistan-Baluchestan have just passed a new peak. Other provinces including Lorestan, Ardebil, Semnan, Qazvin, Mazandaran and Gilan have incompatible data to analyze!” The “incompatible data” is a code word for “manipulated data”.
All of this information when Tehran officials announce 10% decrease in recovered cases and 3.5% increase in COVID-19 admissions. Head of Isfahan’s Medical University sounded the alarm that the second wave may hit Isfahan any moment if people do not follow the social distancing rules.
Apparently, Kianoush Jahanpur’s daily show and lies was not up to the Health Minister’s standards and more deceit is needed in the near future. Therefore, Saeed Namaki suddenly fired Jahanpur and appointed Sima Sadaat Laari, Deputy Health Minister in Culture and Student Affairs, as the new Ministry of Health Spokesperson. She will keep her previous position as well. In the appointment letter, Namaki wrote, “Since any statement of the spokesperson is considered the official point of view of the relevant ministry and minister, it is necessary to coordinate with me before saying anything in the media and social networks.” Short time after, Jahanpur showed his shock by posting “One warrior is better than hundred…” on his Twitter account and attaching a picture of Qassem Soleimani to it. After a few hours, that tweet was deleted too. There are some speculations about what has brought this firing and appointment on, such as his comment about Chinese deceit about Coronavirus which made him apologize the next day, or his contradictory comments with Rouhani and Namaki over the past few months which we had mentioned in our reports, and so on.
Today’s daily press release of the numbers was delayed and a little awkward with both Jahanpur and Laari present, but Laari announced, 2,095 new cases and 74 deaths in the past 24 hours. Of course, somebody must have reminded her that wearing mask is recommended by the Ministry or maybe that would be the new norm in which eventually, wearing mask would not be necessary, but who knows what goes on their little minds, whatever it is, it’s not caring for people’s lives. However, we should expect to see a few changes in not so distant future.
All today’s news was another confirmation for our daily reports and warnings. Basic reproduction rate (R0) and growth factors remain above 1, an indication of ongoing crisis, even based on their fake and manipulated numbers.
R0: 1.25
Total: 175,927 (+2,095)
Dead: 8,425 (+74)
Healed: 138,425
Critical: 2,639 (+20)
Admitted: 29,045 (-76)
Tests: 1,128,601 (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)
