Health experts and even Islamic Republic officials warn about the sixth wave of COVID-19 in Iran, but Islamic Republic Ministry of Health insists hospitalizations are in the decline across the country, contrary to its own report a few days ago. Meanwhile, the “smart quarantine” will be implemented in traffic and travel industry from November 22, which means unvaccinated will not be allowed to travel via public transportation. The Ministry of Health announced that in several provinces, including Sistan-Baluchestan (34%), Abadan in Khuzestan (35%) and Bam in Kerman (38.5%) the vaccination rate is too slow, and under 40% of eligible population have received 2 doses of the Chinese vaccine. WHO has recommended 3 doses of Sinopharm as “full vaccination.” The same report shows that Tehran with 0.48% of eligible adults have received 3 doses, which is the highest among all provinces. Several provinces, including Golestan, have not even started the administration of the 3rd dose.
The mistrust between people and the regime, in addition to lack of reliable vaccines in Iran, have led to these numbers. Khamenei banned US and UK made vaccines and the “domestic vaccine” project failed.
Islamic Republic also reopened high schools across Iran from last week and is going to reopen other grades from November 22, while according to its official data, less than 40% of the 12-18 years old students have received 2 doses of the unapproved and ineffective Sinopharm. The statistics indicate that Yasouj Medical University has the highest rate of 2-dose inoculation in this age range in the country, with only 45%! Several provinces, including Sistan-Baluchestan (9.5%), Kurdistan (15.5%) have the lowest vaccination rate in the country and Khorasan Razavi, with Mashhad as its capital and second biggest city in Iran, has only inoculated 20% of its students with 2 shots!
On the other hand, the regime’s corruption and mismanagement has led to such level of poverty in the country that more than 1million students had to drop out of schools. According to regime media, more than half of girls in nomad communities had to leave the education system after elementary school.
The Ministry of Health claims since February 9, only 41,650,237 (49.58% of Iran population) have received 2 doses of these vaccines. Health experts believe at least 85% of population must be fully immunized before any reopening happens.
The Ministry of Health Spokesperson claimed 109 have died of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours and 7,322 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: 6,027,269 (+7,322)
Dead: 127,918 (+109)
Recovered: 5,670,656
Critical: 3,546 (-36)
Active Cases: 228,695 (-6,996)
Total Tests: 36,829,133
Cover: Fatemeh Nasr
