COVID-19 continues to kill more than 100 every day in Iran, while Islamic Republic officials boast about “controlling the virus!” Provincial officials warn about the “fragile” condition in their provinces and demand the government to not rush into premature reopenings. On the other hand, the vaccination has slowed down and many across the country are not interested in the vaccines used in Iran or have skipped their second shots. The majority of shots used in the country have been the Chinese Sinopharm which according to the WHO, 3 doses are needed to be considered “fully vaccinated.” It has been proven the vaccine is ineffective against Delta variant.
Ministry of Health official admits 15% of the eligible population have not received any shot. Dr. Zahraei contradicted earlier reports and said the Ministry has not received any vaccine from COVPars or FakhraVac. He admitted that only 17million doses of “domestic vaccines” have been delivered to the Ministry, “which was not enough!” Khamenei banned US and UK vaccines, promoted the “homegrown vaccines” which have failed miserably after about 1 year! Zahraei predicted that all people would need a third dose eventually, which could be done in next Persian year (after March 21, 2022), with “domestic shots.”
Another official from the Ministry of Health did not deny that new variant may have entered Iran through eastern borders and claimed Pasteur Institute would be assessing the situation. Health experts had warned about Delta Plus entering the country for weeks! Sharifi added South Khorasan is experiencing an uptrend in COVID-19 cases while hospitalizations are up in “red” cities. Despite several cities being in “blue”, their officials have sounded the alarm for increasing number of hospitalizations. Babol in Mazandaran is one of those cases.
The Ministry of Health Spokesperson claimed 125 have died of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours and 6,251 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 308,000 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: 6,057,893 (+6,251)
Dead: 128,531 (+125)
Recovered: 5,734,181
Critical: 3,463 (-14)
Active Cases: 195,181 (-7,162)
Total Tests: 37,359,561
Cover: Behzad Alipour
