Dr Nabipour, a pediatrician in Gonabad, Golestan, was admitted to hospital with gastrointestinal bleeding after receiving Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine. The report was confirmed by Ministry of Health. While Kianoush Jahanpur downplayed the complication and said the causal relationship is “under investigation,” there were reports of several nurses hospitalized in Sari after receiving the shot too! At the same time, Islamic Republic controlled media started publishing reports about the glory of the Russian vaccine!
After weeks of inaction about Khuzestan’s coronavirus resurgence, mostly due to the new UK coronavirus variant, the Governor announced all traffics into and out of Khuzestan is prohibited to prevent spread of the new variant to other provinces! The Governor also implemented a new rule by which 10% of employees are to attend work in person. Soleimani said the COVID-19 death rate, 25-30 a day, in Khuzestan is dreadful. Besides cutting power to markets and downtown area in Ahvaz to prevent gatherings, city’s Fire Department has begun drowning streets of Ahvaz with water to close down street vendors and gatherings!
Ahvaz Medical University official said the virus spreading in the city is very different from the Wuhan coronavirus with more potency and faster spread. Dr. Soltani said there could be a mutation happening in Iran at the rate it’s spreading. Another official had floated the idea of “Iranian Virus” too. Dr. Arezoumand from a hospital in Ahvaz warned about healthcare staff getting sick more often now that their exposure to the virus has increased.
New cases of UK coronavirus variant have been confirmed in Kermanshah and Lorestan. Kermanshah’s total number of cases reached 6, with a 39-year-old female dying in hospital shortly after presenting with symptoms similar to common cold. According to Dr. Shakiba, 2 of the cases are 12 and 19 years old siblings! Lorestan announced 2 new cases. Fars and Khorsan Razavi authorities warn about the fragile situation and increasing number of COVID-19 cases.
Sima Sadat Lari said Alborz, Chaharmahal-Bakhtiari and Qazvin are at an infection uptrend, Khuzestan in a steep upward trajectory. She added, last week the most cases were from Khuzestan, Mazandaran and Chaharmahal-Bakhtiari while Khuzestan, Mazandaran and Semnan had the most deaths. Ministry of Health Spokesperson reported Kurdistan, Qom and Golestan as the ones with least rate of people abiding by health protocols.
FDA Spokesman made a bold claim, with no further details, saying, so far 21,000,000 doses of coronavirus vaccines have been purchased which will be imported gradually! Jahanpur added, at least 120 million doses will be produced inside Iran in the course of one year (March 21, 2021, March 20, 2022), and total of 180million doses will be available which surpasses the need!
National Task Force finally made a decision about Persian New Year Holidays’ traveling guidelines. According to Raisi, traveling to/from red and orange cities is totally forbidden while yellow and blue cities could travel only “by following health protocols” and “only if necessary.”
According to the manipulated daily data of Ministry of Health, 82 died of COVID-19 in Iran in the past 24 hours while 8,212 tested positive for the novel coronavirus. Testing remains in the same 60,000 PCR tests per day, which critical cases keep rising. Active cases are on the rise too, as seen on the graphs.
R0: 4.02
Total: 1,681,682 (+8,212)
Dead: 60,594 (+82)
Recovered: 1,435,357
Critical: 3,784 (+17)
Admitted: 185,731 (+781)
Tests: 11,212,921 (13.5% of the population, assuming each test was performed on 1 person)
