COVID-19 took 17 lives per hour in the past 24 hours, according to Ministry of Health’s undercounted discredited data. 424 deaths and 8,864 have tested positive for the novel coronavirus since yesterday. The entire country remains critical but Sima Sadat Lari continue to mention Fars in “alarming” category while provincial officials have reported it as “beyond critical.”
While most of the provinces are setting new records for daily deaths and cases, Islamic Republic officials and media are focused on US presidential election! From the “Supreme Leader” Khamenei to President of Islamic Republic, Rouhani, have commented on the US affairs but not on the crises going on in the country.
Iraj Harirchi, Deputy Health Minister, warns about “normalization” of high daily death counts! He also admits “this is the result of our actions in the past month.” That includes Arbain, refusing to ban travels, and the list goes on! Saeed Khaal, head of Behesht-e-Zahra (Tehran cemetery), said 50% of all deaths across the country happen in Tehran. He added this is an unprecedented crisis for his organization. He continued the staff are exhausted.
Hospitals continue to struggle with influx of patients. An official said the hospitals can’t cope with the flood of cases and “we may have to close the hospitals’ doors soon.”
Despite the request from head of Corona Combating Committee in Tehran to suspend filming TV shows and movies, the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance continues to risk spread of the deadly virus among actors and residents. After death of one of the actors on a project from COVID-19, actors are asking producers to suspend projects but they’re not heard. Quite the opposite, Saeed Namaki wrote a letter to the CIG Minister asking him to continue the projects because people need to watch “good programs.”
Basic Reproduction Rate (R0) and graphs depict the human catastrophe in Iran, ongoing for almost 9 months! Active and critical cases continue to rise on a daily basis. Testing remains in the same range, one of the lowest per capita in the world. A “parliament” representative has confirmed our reports that the cost of testing is difficult for many to afford, causing to diagnose cases too late! He said, the testing should be free so “we don’t spend 300 times of testing cost on a COVID-19 patient.”
R0: 2.20
Total: 663,800 (+8,864)
Dead: 37,409 (+424)
Recovered: 509,952
Critical: 5,495 (+23)
Admitted: 116,439 (+3,775)
Tests: 5,147,249 (6.2% of the population, assuming each test was performed on 1 person)
Cover: Nazila Ghomian
