Four more provinces show novel coronavirus uptrend, just like we had reported earlier. Iraj Harirchi confirmed Mazandaran, Kermanshah, Hormozgan and Sistan-Baluchestan have increased number of cases but he didn’t mention the numbers. He asked local authorities to impose appropriate restrictions. On the other hand, according to Deputy Health Minister in Treatment Affairs, Khuzestan is still in worrisome situation.
Masoud Mardani, member of National Infectious Disease Control Committee, said the 3 months epidemic in Iran shows that 12% of COVID-19 patients who go to hospitals end up dead. “Indeed, 5% of COVID-19 cases going to hospitals are admitted to ICUs, of which 50% lose their life.” I was unable to reach the 12% from what he’s said, however I tried.
In the meantime, Epidemiology Committee of National Corona Combating Task Force in a report about “COVID-19 trend in the country in the days leading up to May 23” which was published on May 27, announced only 4 provinces including Ardebil, Zanjan, Gilan and Mazandaran are in downward trend and the country as a whole on a plateau, quite the opposite of what the head of the Task Force, Hassan Rouhani, and other Ministry of Health officials have been saying on IRIB and other news outlets.
While Harirchi, the Deputy Health Minister, in a recent trip to Khuzestan, confirmed the critical situation in the province and Ahvaz’s Medical University has reported 500+ cases a day, and the province was on lockdown for 5 days, this reports says, Khuzestan’s situation is stable with “minor changes” in the trend. This same documents reports uptrend in 9 other provinces including Qazvin, Markazi, Semnan, Golestan, West Azerbaijan, Kohgiluyeh-Boyerahmad, Sistan-Baluchestan, Chaharmahal-Bakhtiari and Hormozgan. It also says Qom, Zanjan, Ilam, Hamedan, Bushehr and Kerman provinces have “incompatible data” to determine the situation! “Incompatible data” has been defined as “infected and deaths’ data are not processed according to protocols and unmatched changes in data have occurred.” It later explains the reasons could include, “inaccurate daily recording of data by provinces, errors in data recording, combination of several epidemic patterns in a province, widespread admissions or escapees in the province, and changing the process of patient migration over time.”
Many questions arise from this report such as, how come the national task force doesn’t have the full picture of the epidemic? How do the Ministry/Provinces designate “red, yellow, white” zones with inaccurate or unmatched data? How does Rouhani and other officials keep insisting on “controlled COVID-19” in the country? How come Zanjan is both in “downward trend” and “incompatible data” categories? Khuzestan has been considered as “critical” by many officials, how is it that it’s named in the “stable” category? Is this report reliable on ANY level?! And many more questions…
On another news, according to Human Rights Activists News Agency, there have been 11 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Karaj and Uromiyeh prisons who have been transferred to hospitals outside the prisons. The agency also reports on at least 1 death in Zahedan and 1 in Karaj prisons. Unfortunately, the horrifying situation in prisons has deteriorated and returning prisoners from their leave without going to quarantine has caused a more extensive spread of the virus.
Islamic Republic has gotten used to managing crisis with another crisis, ifs, buts and wishes, waiting for miracles; distracting public opinion towards something worse than what’s going on has been a successful approach for them for 41 years. These days, Romina Ashrafi’s heinous murder is on every news outlet, till the next crisis is revealed.
Today, Kianoush Jahanpur announced confirmation of 2,258 new cases and 63 deaths in the past 24 hours. Numbers keep going up but “we’ve controlled the disease with a fantastic job and westerners should be learning from us,” is what Rouhani would say. Even graphs of their fake and manipulated numbers show how “stable” the situation is.
R0: 1.24
Total: 143,849 (+2,258)
Dead: 7,627 (+63)
Healed: 112,988
Critical: 2,543 (-8)
Admitted: 23,234 (+383)
Tests: 876,492 (Number of labs wasn’t mentioned in today’s news. Officials may have finally figured out there are discrepancies when they lie.)
Iran International Death Toll: 13,193 (Last updated on April 25)
