Head of Ahvaz Medical University warned the COVID-19 may flare up in a few weeks. Dr. Sarmast confirmed the decline in cases and deaths has slowed down. He forewarned about the religious gatherings and Persian New Year holidays which could cause another wave in Iran. Deputy Head of the university reiterated the situation is fragile. Dr. Alavi reported 44% of PCR tests turn positive in Khuzestan. He repeated his previous warning about spread of BA.2 subvariant of Omicron in the country, urging the government to control borders more vigorously. Dr. Alavi said 15% of eligible population in Khuzestan have not received any shots while that number is 27% for second dose and 69% for the 3rd.
Lorestan Governor pointed out the same slowing down of decline in deaths numbers. Head of Arak Medical University asked people not think COVID-19 is over and sounded the alarm for the seventh wave. Dr. Jamalian reported only 42.7% of 5-12 year olds have received vaccines while Islamic Republic officials declared “online schooling illegal!” National COVID-19 Task Force Spokesman admitted 26% of eligible population in Iran have not received any vaccine and only about 30% have gotten 3 doses.
The Islamic Republic “Supreme Leader” banned the reliable US and UK made vaccines, leading to tsunami of deaths during Delta wave. Khamenei promoted his foundation’s shot, COVIran Barekat, which failed miserably. Multiple “homegrown” vaccines, including PastoCoVac, COVPars, Fakhra, Noora, Spikogen, never met the expectations and none of them has published their results or received recognition/approval from international health organizations.
According to official definition of “full vaccination” and Ministry of Health data, since February 9, only 24,880,597 (29.61% of Iran population) are vaccinated against COVID-19 with these vaccines. It is estimated that more than 53 million Iranians are at risk of contracting Omicron. The majority of shots used in Iran are the ineffective Sinopharm and COVIran Barekat. WHO recommends 3 doses of Sinopharm to be effective against Delta but studies have found the vaccine ineffective against Omicron.
The Ministry of Health Spokesperson claimed 120 have died of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours and 2,219 tested positive for the novel coronavirus. Number of daily tests performed in the country continue to decline despite experts advice to have a more active case finding. Professor of Epidemiology at Tehran University believes these numbers must be multiplied by 7 and Civil Registration Organization data show more than 324,000 have died of the disease since February 2020.
R0: 1.94
Total: 7,119,763 (+2,219)
Dead: 138,831 (+120)
Recovered: 6,774,197
Critical: 2,921 (-148)
Active Cases: 206,735 (-3,827)
Total Tests: 48,179,304
Cover: Seyed Khalil Mousavi
