Islamic Republic Interior Minister is the first high-ranking official admitting the sixth wave is a reality and “expresses his worry!” Ahmad Vahidi blamed the people for 45% compliance wit the protocols and laid out the plan for mandatory vaccines for several businesses. Mashhad announces its outpatient clinics and hospitals are ready to “face the sixth wave” of COVID-19 in Iran. Fars authorities reported increasing number of cases on a daily basis in the past week.
As previously reported by IranTrue, Islamic Republic has been using its propaganda network to downplay the deadly disease in Iran in the past few weeks, as a sign of Raisi’s success! However, health experts and provincial officials are sounding the alarm for the next breakout. Deputy head of Ahvaz Medical University criticized the government for using the “coloring map” and said the low number of “red” cities is just the surface, “cases are on the rise!” Dr. Alavi added the current vaccination may not help in preventing the sixth wave. He reported only 32% of students between 12-17 have received 1 dose of Sinopharm, an unverified jab for this age range.
While the Islamic Republic insists on reopening schools from mid-November, majority of 12-17 year olds have not been vaccinated yet. Donyamali, a representative at the Islamic Republic “parliament,” confirmed that the national average of full vaccination for the students is below 50%.
Tehran Corona Combating Committee official reiterated Dr. Alavi’s point that at least 80% of population must be fully vaccinated to begin the “smart quarantine” plan. Dr. Tavakoli also confirmed that the “coloring map” is a useless tool and one of the main problems in managing the crisis! They made this point 19 months into the epidemic and thousands of people dead. Tavakoli reported 50-60 daily COVID-19 deaths in the capital and admitted the sixth wave is a strong possibility.
At the same time, Red Crescent Society announced arrival of 6million doses of Sinopharm from China. According tot he Ministry of Health, since February 9, total of 67,029,381 shots have been administered across the country while only 20,778,880 (24.73% of Iran population) have received two doses of these vaccines.
The Ministry of Health Spokesperson claimed 213 have died of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours and 13,391 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 294,000 have died of the disease since February 2020.
R0: 2.10
Total: 5,729,785 (+13,391)
Dead: 123,081 (+213)
Recovered: 5,249,956
Critical: 5,124 (-94)
Active Cases: 356,748 (-2,783)
Total Tests: 33,453,877
Cover: Meysam Maleki
