National Task Force Spokesman admitted the new coronavirus outbreak has begun from the west and center of Iran. Raisi named 20 counties that would be added to the list of high risk areas. According to him, 2 cities from Lorestan and Ilam are to become red while 18 counties from Kerman, Isfahan, Tehran, Lorestan, Bushehr, Chaharmahal-Bakhtiari, Markazi, Kermanshah, Alborz, Fars and Zanjan will be orange in the next update coming out soon! Although, he said this is a prediction according to current situation in these cities and may change. Deputy Health Minister in Public Health also confirmed that outpatient cases are on the rise in “many areas.”
Zanjan officials warn about UK variant circulating in the province. Head of Bushehr Medical University announced the arrival of a “new peak” in Iran, while confirming 600-700 weekly confirmed cases in the province, a “considerable increase compared to 4 months ago.” Mashhad Medical University reported 100% increase in positivity rate of outpatient and inpatient cases. Dr. Qolyan said, the rate has jumped to 22% from 11% in outpatient and to 40% from 20% in admitted patients. He added on average, 130 patients are hospitalized every day. He warned about increasing number of infections across Khorasan Razavi. Head of Hormozgan Medical University demanded national officials to announce the severity of COVID-19 situation in the province so people do not choose Hormozgan cities as their travel destinations. He reported a 53% rise in hospitalizations.
Meanwhile, Islamic Republic officials introduced a new “coloring system.” According to Director of Environmental & Work Health Organization of North Khorasan, this province is in “orange” status for “following health protocols.” He described it as the use of masks and following social distancing by people and workers in work environments. Mr. Norouzian defined red if less than 75% follow the protocols, orange between 75-85%, yellow 85-95% and white if more than 95% abide by the guidelines!
While COVID-19 is devastating Iranians and vaccination has been behind other nations and even Islamic Republic’s own “national vaccination plan,” Deputy Health Minister in Treatment Affairs claimed “a vast majority of vulnerable people” will be vaccinated by May 12 (end of Ramadan). Jan Babaei did not offer any details on how millions of people are to be vaccinated when only 161,000 have received a shot in the past 4 months! He admitted the UK variant of coronavirus has been vastly spread across the country.
Ministry of Health continues to announce their daily manipulated data. Iran Medical Board is only one of the official bodies who admitted the real numbers are at least 3 times higher. Sima Sadat Lari claimed 81 died of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours in Iran while 9,310 tested positive for the novel coronavirus. That is the first time more than 9,000 is reported since December 11, 2020. Daily PCR tests were reduced by about 4,000 while positivity rate increased to 14.42% from 12.79% the day before. Active cases indicate the biggest jump in the past 3+ months, as seen on graphs.
R0: 3.77
Total: 1,864,984 (+9,310)
Dead: 62,478 (+81)
Recovered: 1,600,488
Critical: 3,940 (+12)
Admitted: 202,018 (+1,960)
Tests: 12,682,968 (15.2% of the population, assuming each test was performed on 1 person)
Cover: Abdolrahman Rafati
