Mashhad, the second biggest city in Iran, is experiencing a fragile COVID-19 situation. Chairman of Mashhad City Council said the city is in dire situation. At the same time, Khorasan Razavi Governor ordered for stricter border control and admitted the province is expecting the sixth wave. Fars officials followed suit and sounded the alarm for spike in their cases, saying the province must be prepared for the next outbreak of the novel coronavirus. On the other hand, even though only about 40% of students have received 2 doses of the ineffective and unproven Sinopharm, all schools across the country will reopen for mandated in-person classes from tomorrow.
Slow and chaotic COVID-19 vaccination and failed “domestic vaccine” projects continue to make the news. While WHO recommends 3 doses of the Chinese Sinopharm are needed for a “fully vaccinated” status, the Islamic Republic has just begun administering the 3rd shot a few weeks ago. According to official data, only 765,235 (0.91% of Iran population) have received 3 doses, and since February 9, 44,726,047 (53.24% of population) have been inoculated with 2 shots of these vaccines, with more than 82% receiving the questionable Sinopharm.
In the meantime, the Islamic Republic keeps pushing for its experimental and charade of “homegrown” shots. According to Noura lead researcher, there is nobody left for their 3rd phase of clinical trial so they would be using this “vaccine” as the “booster” for Iranians. FakhraVac and Spikogen are the other “domestic” ones that have been promised to be used as booster. It is worth mentioning, Khamenei banned the reliable US and UK made vaccines in January, pushing for the domestic ones which have led to nothing but more deaths during back to back waves of the COVID-19.
The Ministry of Health Spokesperson claimed 104 have died of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours and 4,340 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 309,000 have died of the disease since February 2020. Graphs illustrate the ongoing crisis in Iran and forming of the new wave.
R0: 1.93
Total: 6,077,438 (+4,340)
Dead: 128,956 (+104)
Recovered: 5,783,425
Critical: 3,409 (-7)
Active Cases: 165,057 (-7,826)
Total Tests: 37,781,134
Cover: Mohammadreza Farbod
