Islamic Republic officials have been talking up the domestic coronavirus vaccines while none of them have finished their clinical trials. They have also been bragging about their great job in providing foreign made vaccines to Iranians. Tomorrow, 100,000 doses of Russian Sputnik V are to arrive by MahanAir. However, the fact remains that they are behind their own guidelines and all neighboring countries.
Meanwhile, today, Heidar Mohammadi from FDA called on importing companies who could import coronavirus vaccines to submit their documents and evidence as soon as possible, in order to help the government with purchasing foreign “reliable vaccines which are accepted to this organization.” Khamenei has previously banned US, UK and France made vaccines due to “mistrusting the countries.”
COVID-19 continues to rage through Iran. Provincial officials requesting people to stay home and not travel during Nowruz holidays. The 72-hour deadline for travelers in new “orange and red” cities announced on March 20, is over and they are to be fined 1 million Tomans in red areas per 24hours while the hefty fine is 500,000 per 24 hours in orange regions. Ministry of Health demanding people to return home from wherever they are, especially high risk areas, while health experts warn this could be a way of spreading the virus.
Fars reports rise in cases and hospitalizations. Shiraz Medical University officials warn the color of Shiraz may change soon considering its hospitalizations have reached 3-digit territory every day and one of its hospitals is at full capacity. The outbreak of UK variant in Hormozgan continues. Officials confirmed identification of 59 new cases, bringing the total to 358! According to officials, about 30% of admissions are sent to ICU wards! Mashhad, the second biggest city in Iran, announced increasing number of UK variant. Officials warn the next wave in Khorasan Razavi could begin in the next 2-3 weeks.
Sima Sadat Lari presented her daily manipulated data, despite them being critcized widely and even Iran Medical Council admitting the real numbers are at least 3 times higher. Ministry of Health Spokesperson claimed 94 died of COVID-19 in Iran in the past 24 hours while 7,605 tested positive for the novel coronavirus. That is a significant increase from the day before, as seen on the graphs. Sadat Lari warned the alarm for “fourth wave of coronavirus” has gone off. Testing remains in the same range. Critical and active cases continue to rise.
R0: 3.77
Total: 1,823,317 (+7,605)
Dead: 62,045 (+94)
Recovered: 1,562,709
Critical: 3,874 (+9)
Admitted: 198,563 (+568)
Tests: 12,349,804 (14.9% of the population, assuming each test was performed on 1 person)
Cover: Mohammad Soltani Mojaveri
