“The fifth wave of coronavirus in Iran is inevitable,” said Dr. Mardani. A member of the National Task Force to combat coronavirus added, the wave may be postponed until late summer when many people are vaccinated, but if compliance with protocols declines, it is another story! According to Mardani, the next wave would be caused by Indian or South African variants. He expanded on his previous revelation that black fungus has reached Tehran, saying it happened “several months ago” at Loqman Hospital where a COVID-19 patient had used steroid excessively, but he was treated. Mardani asked the Ministry of Health to stop exporting remdesivir to Iraq and Oman, which has caused some shortage in Iran hospitals. He also recommended travel ban across the country until 70% of people are vaccinated. According to official data, since February 9, only 0.58% of Iranians have been fully vaccinated and total of 3,637,373 shots administered.
On the other hand, Director of Public Relations Office at Iran Medical Board confirmed that physicians in private sector have not been fully vaccinated yet! Dr. Kermanpour promised all physicians will be vaccinated by July 22! Chairman of the Board had asserted this achievement in April! In addition, majority of nurses remain neglected, as evidenced by their daily protests across the country.
In the meantime, Ministry of Health updated the list of “high risk” areas, indicating number of “red” counties has increased from 8 to 13. While only Hormozgan, Bushehr and Sistan-Baluchestan had “red” areas, spike in COVID-19 hospitalizations has reached Kerman and Kermanshah too. Zanjan officials warn that if protocols are not followed and “elections” gatherings happen, the situation would worsen fast.
Ministry of Health Spokesperson claimed 184 died of COVID-19 in Iran in the past 24 hours and 10,253 tested positive for the novel coronavirus, an increase from the day before. Sima Sadat Lari did not provide any variant specific information. Iran Medical Board and other officials have admitted the real numbers are at least 3 times higher than the daily reports. The graphs remain the best indicator of the coronavirus crisis history in Iran.
R0: 3.29
Total: 2,886,111 (+10,253)
Dead: 79,568 (+184)
Recovered: 2,410,252
Critical: 4,383 (-92)
Active Cases: 396,291 (-3,643)
Tests: 19,550,558 (23.2% of the population, assuming each test was performed on 1 person)
Cover: Mohammadali Assadi
