Critical COVID-19 cases in parts of Iran are soaring despite the Islamic Republic officials claiming the sixth wave is in decline. At the same time, all restrictions are lifted in spite of warnings about “tsunami of travels” during Persian New Year Holidays and the BA.2 wave. Fars continues reporting triple digit daily cases and hospitalizations.
Although Health Minister and other officials prides themselves in “widespread vaccination” across Iran, authorities in Khorasan Razavi, with Mashhad – the second major city of Iran – as its capital, announced more than 1,500,000 have not received any vaccines in the province. That is more than 37% of the 4.8million eligible population in the province. Jafarinejad also admitted many have not completed their vaccination. Another proof of how regime officials use their propaganda network and lies to paint a false picture of reality in Iran.
On the other hand, Tehran authorities announced that all inter-city travelings will be allowed as long as the owner of the vehicle has received 3 doses of vaccines, irrespective of their passengers’ vaccination status! According to official definition of “full vaccination” and Ministry of Health data, since February 9, only 23,356,372 (27.80% 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 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.
The Ministry of Health Spokesperson claimed 203 have died of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours and 6,234 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: 2.08
Total: 7,066,975 (+6,234)
Dead: 137,267 (+203)
Recovered: 6,678,078
Critical: 4,066 (+39)
Active Cases: 251,630 (-6,345)
Total Tests: 47,415,942
Cover: Ali Haddadi-Asl
