WHO has recommended 3 doses (not booster!) for the people receiving Sinopharm as their shot. Today, Dr. Jama’ati of National COVID-19 Task Force confirmed that the third dose should be administered 28 days after the second dose. Previously, the Islamic Republic Ministry of Health had announced the over 60 could receive their third dose up to 4 months after their second jab. Whether 4 weeks or 4 months, both windows have passed for millions of Iranians over 60!
The Islamic Republic “Supreme Leader” had previously turned down US help to fight the novel coronavirus in March 2020, expelled Doctors Without Borders’ team from Isfahan and in January 2021, banned US and UK made vaccines. The late start in the vaccination led to a tsunami of death and massacre, with all Iranians losing loved ones. Khamenei insisted on his foundation to launch “domestic” vaccine, a project that failed miserably. Islamic Republic began the COVID-19 vaccination from February 9, 2021 in Iran, starting with 80+ age range and doing a few thousand jabs a day. At times the inoculation process was suspended completely across the country, because there was no vaccine.
Health experts have joined the people in rebuking the regime for delays in vaccination, holding religious gatherings, premature reopenings of schools and businesses, not lifting the “night travel ban”, and so on.
Meanwhile, COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations continue to rise across the country, especially in the western provinces, Khorasan Razavi, Fars, Yazd and Khuzestan. Delta Plus subvariant, 20% more transmissible than the Delta, is a major concern in Iran but the Ministry of Health does not screen or sequence specimens.
The Ministry of Health Spokesperson claimed 123 have died of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours and 7,539 tested positive for the novel coronavirus. Professor of Epidemiology at Tehran University believes these numbers must be multiplied by 7 and Civil Registration Organization data show more than 305,000 have died of the disease since February 2020. Graphs illustrate the ongoing crisis in Iran and forming of the new wave.
R0: 2.04
Total: 6,019,947 (+7,539)
Dead: 127,809 (+123)
Recovered: 5,656,447
Critical: 3,582 (-34)
Active Cases: 235,691 (-5,650)
Total Tests: 36,720,612
