The Islamic Republic Health Minister confirms the sixth wave is coming and despite his previous comment about “not being worried due to vast vaccination,” he even refused to hear nurses’ plea asking for leave, saying “we must be ready” for the sixth wave. On the other hand, Eynollahi blamed slow and late COVID-19 vaccination in Iran on US sanctions as did his predecessor and other regime officials. He admitted hundreds of thousands of Iranians died of COVID-19 due to lack of vaccines. However, he failed to mention Khamenei banned UK and US made vaccines in January and if sanctions were the problem, how millions of doses from different countries have arrived in Iran in the past few months.
In the meeting with ambassadors of countries which have donated vaccines to Iran, including China, Japan, Austria, Poland, Germany, Greece, Italy, Qatar, Cuba and UAE, Eynollahi claimed the “domestic vaccines” will be exported to “developing countries.” The Vice President, IRGC Commanders, Defense Minister, Saeed Namaki and many other officials had promised to produce millions of “homegrown vaccines” to be used in the country and the surplus exported to “poor countries!”
Meanwhile, an epidemiologist and head of Strategic Committee for Vaccination Studies of the Ministry of Health, admitted Arbaeen and Muharram/Safar gatherings have caused the fifth wave’s decline to flatten and the sixth wave begin to form. Dr. Younesian warned the current level of COVID-19 cases and deaths is more than the previous waves which is worrisome. He also emphasized the concurrent and sudden reopening of schools, universities, movie theaters, gyms,… is a big mistake and they should only be reopened in stages after 2 weeks have passed from full vaccination of at least 80% of population! However, Islamic Republic officials have already announced all schools and universities must resume their in-person classes from mid-November and in some provinces, such as Lorestan, workers are to return to offices.
Majority of Iranians have received the Chinese Sinopharm which has been proven ineffective against Delta variant and only about 30% of Iran’s eligible population have been vaccinated, including 35% of 12-17 year olds!
More provinces join the list of alarming surge in cases. Officials in Mazandaran, Gilan, Fars, Khorasan Razavi, Khuzestan, warn about the next wave of COVID-19 and begin preparations to face another flood of patients. Even though religious gatherings and premature reopenings are the main reasons, Islamic Republic media does not stop blaming the people for not following the “protocols!”
The Ministry of Health Spokesperson claimed 199 have died of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours and 11,396 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 297,000 have died of the disease since February 2020. Graphs illustrate the ongoing crisis in Iran and forming of the new wave.
R0: 2.10
Total: 5,784,815 (+11,396)
Dead: 124,075 (+199)
Recovered: 5,324,108
Critical: 4,769 (-71)
Active Cases: 336,632 (-2,919)
Total Tests: 34,008,636
