Islamic Republic officials including its President and Health Minister continue to downplay the danger of Indian, South African and Indian-Californian coronavirus variant in Iran while more than 50 cases have been found in Bushehr, Qom, West Azerbaijan and Hormozgan with different variants. Saeed Namaki claims the fourth wave has passed but Hassan Rouhani sounded the alarm about the fifth wave already. In the meantime, Rouhani announced travel ban during Eid Fitr holidays next week, between May 11 and 15, across the country.
Yesterday, Hassan Rouhani had claimed millions will receive COVID-19 shots by July 22, an impossible claim. Today, National Task Force Spokesman said the vaccination process will speed up beginning the last week of July. Dr. Raisi claimed 7 million doses of COVIran Barekat will be available every month by then, and 1.5 to 2million doses from “other vaccines.” He did not mention what those “other vaccines” are. He “hoped” that by March 20, 2022, 10-15million will be fully vaccinated, while 55-56 million doses will be administered. Raisi had repeatedly claimed in the past that by March 20, 2022, all adults in Iran would be fully vaccinated!
The chaotic and contradictory comments by Islamic Republic officials about COVID-19 and vaccination continues while according to the Ministry of Health, only 0.29% of Iran population, 244,526, have been fully vaccinated since February 9, 2021. So far, total of 1,425,767 doses have been administered.
Despite the danger of the next coronavirus wave dominated by Indian or South African strains, Friday Prayers are to be held across the country, even in orange cities.
Ministry of Health Spokesperson claimed 338 died of COVID-19 in Iran in the past 24 hours while 18,409 tested positive for the novel coronavirus. Sima Sadat Lari has not announced specific variants of cases and refuses to mention individual provincial statistics. Iran Medical Board officials admitted the real figures are at least 3 times higher than the daily reports. Despite officials’ claims about downward trend of the fourth wave, cases, hospitalizations and deaths remain at the highest level since the epidemic began in Iran, 15 months ago. Critical cases also continue to rise, as seen on the graphs.
R0: 3.77
Total: 2,610,018 (+18,409)
Dead: 73,906 (+338)
Recovered: 2,057,692
Critical: 5,515 (+16)
Active Cases: 478,420 (-194)
Tests: 16,652,514 (19.8% of the population, assuming each test was performed on 1 person)
Cover: Iman Hamikhah
