Sima Sadat Lari announced her daily manipulated data, with 86 COVID-19 deaths in Iran in the past 24 hours and 8,525 new coronavirus positive tests. However, even officials have admitted the real numbers are at least 3-4 times higher than what is reported by Ministry of Health. Dr Hamid Souri, head of Ministry’s Rapid Response Team, said 25% of all daily deaths are from Khuzestan, which is struggling with the new UK variant which spreads and involves patients much faster than the Wuhan version. He warned the same situation might happen in Tehran soon. Souri suggested the spread of UK variant must be stalled until most people are vaccinated. According to officials, that could take a whole year!
Khuzestan is ravaged by the new UK variant. Ahvaz and Abadan hospitals are filled with COVID-19 patients, forcing administrators to discharge non-COVID-19 patients. Two recuperating centers have started servicing less serious patients. Saeed Namaki said even when the patients go to hospitals as soon as symptoms present, within 48 hours most of their lungs are involved. The Health Minister said this was contrary to what we had thought, “within 24hours, 30 of 70 patients in ICUs in Khuzestan, fell victim to the new variant.” While local authorities ask Tehran for permission to lock down Khuzestan, National Task Force, including Mr. Health Minister, refuse to approve the request.
The British version of coronavirus has spread across the country. Hormozgan reports dangerous and fragile situation, banning travels to the province, including Qeshm and Kish Islands. Kurdistan confirmed its second case of the variant. Yazd and Semnan report increasing COVID-19 cases, with Yazd warning about spread of the new variant. Tehran Corona Combating Committee warned about spread of the new mutated virus, saying younger individuals are infected and hospitalized. Zali reported increasing number of cases and admissions.
Fars recorded spike in their cases and deaths, announcing half of the victims are from Shiraz. Despite the grim reports from across the nation, and when Namaki says “don’t even dream of traveling during Persian New Year holidays,” National Task Force refuses to announce official ruling about vacationing and travels! The elite group is to inform people of the ruling by March 18, when most people will be on their trips!
Islamic Republic has denied Iranians access to reliable vaccines and is behind every other country in the region on immunizing people. The second batch of Sputnik V is being used now, while Chinese government’s gift is being prepared for distribution. The third shipment of the Russian coronavirus vaccine is on its way. According to Mehr News Agency, 200,000 doses have been delivered to Islamic Republic embassy in Moscow and Mahan Air will deliver them to Iran tomorrow! In the meantime, Reuters published a poll of Russians, showing 62% have no intention of receiving the vaccine! 2/3 of Russia cite complications and lack of trust in manufacturing process as the reason for their choice. On February 10, Russia’s Health Minister announced only 2 million of 145 million Russians (1.37%) have received the first dose of Sputnik in 3 months of governmental massive vaccination campaign!
The Ministry of Health Spokesman’s daily charade of press release included daily PCR test number. It has remained in the same range, but officials claim there has been an “active finding” campaign which has led to increasing number of cases! Another false claim which has been debunked by IranTrue before, and it’s obvious on graphs. Active cases continue to rise.
R0: 4.10
Total: 1,656,699 (+8,525)
Dead: 60,353 (+86)
Recovered: 1,413,717
Critical: 3,747 (+9)
Admitted: 182,629 (+1,567)
Tests: 11,032,310 (13.2% of the population, assuming each test was performed on 1 person)
Cover: Amin Nazari
