Khuzestan Governor announced the lockdown he had requested will not happen for now. Soleimani said every day there are 2,000 positive coronavirus tests in the province, of which 150-200 must be admitted! Hospitals are already at full capacity and shortage of staff has overwhelmed the system. Head of Ahvaz Medical University provided a chilling statistics for cases between February 8 and March 2: 70% of patients to hospitals must be intubated immediately or have died as soon as they arrive at the ER, and 1/3 of the dead were only in the hospital for 24hrs! Abolnejadian reiterated, at this point common cold doesn’t exist, if someone’s symptomatic, it’s COVID-19 unless proven otherwise.
Khuzestan has become the capital of COVID-19 in Iran, but that doesn’t mean other provinces are in a better situation! The stubborn refusal by the Islamic Republic to quarantine Khuzestan, has spread the new UK variant across the country, therefore, an uptrend in cases. Semnan reported spike in walk-ins, Yazd in positive cases and hospitalizations. Tehran announced soaring cases while the new variant is circulating in the capital. Dr. Zali said the exhaustion of healthcare staff must not be forgotten.
Kohgiloyeh-Boyerahmad has recorded 16-27% PCR test positivity rate in 4 of its counties. The Governor said 40 of whom have come to help Sisakht residents from other provinces after the big earthquake, have tested positive for coronavirus and are hospitalized! Mashhad Medical University announced 14 UK variant patients across Khorasan Razavi. Zanjan reported PCR positivity rate of 13-22% in 3 of its biggest counties! Hamedan, Lorestan, Fars, Hormozgan, Bushehr, South Khorasan, North Khorasan, East Azerbaijan, Ilam, West Azerbaijan, Mazandaran, Gilan, and Golestan continue to struggle with increasing coronavirus infections. Haj Babaei, Deputy Health Minister in Treatment Affairs admits, “We don’t know when the pandemic ends yet, even with vaccination! COVID-19 will become an endemic.”
While Khamenei Representative in Shiraz says “religion is all human’s life,” Gilan and other provinces have allowed crowded Friday Prayers in their “orange” counties, even though any gathering was previously banned by the National Task Force! Islamic Republic has allowed religious gatherings throughout the past 13 months since the COVID-19 epidemic began in Iran.
The third batch of Sputnik V which is not trusted in Russia, arrived in Iran. Total number of coronavirus doses imported from Russia and China adds up to: 670,000, immunizing a total of only 335,000 in the next few weeks, 0.4% of 83,000,000 Iran population! This is when Turkey has fully vaccinated 2.5% and UAE 22.1% of their population, until March 3.
Ministry of Health Spokesperson presented her daily manipulated data. According to Sima Sadat Lari, 8,404 tested positive for the novel coronavirus in the past 24 hours in Iran while 78 died of COVID-19. Iran Medical Council officials have admitted the real numbers are at least 3-4 times higher. Daily PCR tests reaches 60,000 for the first time in more than a year, far away from 100,000 promised by officials. Critical and active cases continue to rise as seen on the graphs.
R0: 4.07
Total: 1,665,103 (+8,404)
Dead: 60,431 (+78)
Recovered: 1,420,958
Critical: 3,760 (+13)
Admitted: 183,714 (+1,085)
Tests: 11,092,900 (13.3% of the population, assuming each test was performed on 1 person)
Cover: Mohammad Rajabian
