The whole country and its authorities are focused on implementing a 2-week semi-lockdown across the country, losing the sight of what’s happening in Iran right now. COVID-19 broke daily cases records for the second day in a row without a significant increase in the number of tests done! The hospitals and their staff are on the verge of quitting, as Saeed Namaki admits, “This is the last straw for the healthcare system,” referring to correct and full enforcement of the “comprehensive plan” from Saturday, November 21.
Provinces continue to struggle with flood of patients. Shortage of oxygen tanks has become critical in some parts of the country. Interior Minister keeps showing up on TV explaining the “lockdown” and how much each car would be fined if they don’t abide by the curfew, at the same time, the Money & Credit Council, in charge of running banks in the country, announced banks will be running with half their employees during the “lockdown!” That means people would still go to banks and still use the public transportation system and coronavirus will continue to spread. The more details are released, the more the emptiness of this “total lockdown” appears.
On the other hand, the Health Minister continues to beg people and government organizations to enforce and abide by the “lockdown” so the infections would slow down or the country will fall from “a cliff” and nobody can “help us.”
Sima Sadat Lari, the Ministry of Health Spokesperson, announced the daily undercounted and discredited data. According to her, 13,352 have tested positive for coronavirus and 482 died of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours. Testing remains in the same range of 40,000 while the positivity rate increased by 0.5%! The officials keep promising daily tests will increase to 100,000 but no mention a timeline. However, Saeed Namaki keeps praising himself for increasing the tests from 25,000 to 40,000 per day after 9 months in a country with more than 83,000,000 citizens.
Basic Reproduction Rate (R0) increased 13 points indicating the gravity of coronavirus crisis. Graphs depict the waves and the ongoing human catastrophe in Iran for more than 9 months. Active cases keep rising, so do the critical cases.
R0: 3.20
Total: 788,473 (+13,352)
Dead: 42,461 (+482)
Recovered: 570,774
Critical: 5,691 (+14)
Admitted: 175,238 (+6,795)
Tests: 5,586,141 (6.7% of the population, assuming each test was performed on 1 person)
