Iran Medical Board announced they have convened a committee to investigate and address the reasons behind medical residents’ “deaths chain.” According to Dr. Kermanpour, low income and extreme workload are the main reasons for residents’ suicides. ISNA, a state-controlled media, confirmed 4 medical residents have committed suicides in the past 25 days, in Tehran. Medical residents are the front line fighters against COVID-19 but have received little to no compensation for risking their lives. Nurses too have been neglected by the Ministry of Health. Many members of these groups have not even been vaccinated yet.
While Islamic Republic officials continue to downplay the Indian and South African variants of coronavirus in Iran, and manipulate the statistics to reflect a decline in cases, local reports indicate full hospitals in some areas of Iran. Even with the Ministry of Health data showing 309 cities as “high risk” areas, it has not stopped the officials from reopening the majority of businesses in “red and orange” cities. Meanwhile, Dr. Tabarsi, head of Infectious-disease ward at Masih Daneshvari hospital in Tehran, warned people to wear masks even outdoors until everybody is vaccinated and COVID-19 deaths have reached a low level!
Mass vaccination, however, remains a distant wish for Iranians. Islamic Republic officials had promised arriving of new shipment to begin 75+ immunizations by today, but there is no report of any shipment. Meanwhile, Customs officials reported a 50-ton shipment from China for “Execution of Imam Khomeini’s Order,” responsible for developing “COVIran Barekat.” According to Aronaghi, label makers, autoclave, sterilization equipment,… were imported to help the company reach its “20-30million dose per month” goal. It is worth noting, the vaccine has not passed any approval and no data has been published. There have also been rumors that Islamic Republic is going to rebrand Chinese or Russian vaccines and sell it as “Made in Iran.” The officials have already admitted on collaborating with Russia and China seems to be sending them all the needed material to achieve that.
Despite that fact, the “Execution of Imam Khomeini’s Order” officials have asked Ministry of Health to pave the way for possible “exportation” of the COVID-19 vaccine. FDA Spokesman declared “there is no need for WHO authorization or approval” in order to export the vaccine but it depends on the buyer!
In the meantime, Iranians are far away from any immunity against COVID-19. Ministry of Health data indicate that since February 9, only 342,950 (0.40% of population) are fully vaccinated while 2,056,598 shots have been administered. Iran remains behind rival neighboring countries, despite all the boastful comments from the officials.
Sima Sadat Lari claimed 202 died of COVID-19 in Iran in the past 24 hours while 10,145 tested positive for the novel coronavirus. As usual, there was no reporting on the variants from the Ministry of Health Spokesperson. According to Iran Medical Board officials, the real figures are at least 3 times higher than the daily reports. As seen on the graphs, Iran has not passed its fourth coronavirus wave yet.
R0: 3.62
Total: 2,732,152 (+10,145)
Dead: 76,433 (+202)
Recovered: 2,196,197
Critical: 5,468 (-13)
Active Cases: 459,522 (-6,364)
Tests: 17,750,149 (21.1% of the population, assuming each test was performed on 1 person)
Cover: Tasnim News Agency
