COVID-19 breaks the daily records once again, less than a week from the last time on October 14. According to the undercounted data of Ministry of Health which only includes confirmed PCR tests, 337 Iranians died in the past 24 hours. 1,948 patients of 4,251 new cases were admitted in hospitals in the same time period. The horrifying crisis has gotten worse by shortage of insulin and other vital medications.
In light of the smuggled medicine to Iraq from Iran, Ministry of Health and other officials have summoned all their propaganda campaigns to imply those medications were not from Iran but the country was used as a transit route. In the meantime, a video was leaked showing 16 pallets of medicine (Losartan, antihypertensive drug) going to Venezuela, weighing about 3.5 tons. The video shows the Iran Air logo on the packaging.
Islamic Republic officials have stepped even further and respond to people on social media with condescension and cheek! In response to a post that he wasn’t able to find insulin for his father and used domestic version which caused his dad become hypoglycemic, Kianoush Jahanpur, Director of Public Relations at Ministry of Health, tweeted: “Use lower dosage.” As if people owe them something in addition to their sufferings caused by Islamic Republic’s mismanagement and corruption!
Islamic Republic President spoke about another vague “plan” to recognize the chain of spread. He said, “We should quarantine everybody who has been in contact with a positive case.” He didn’t give any more details, but after 8 months of struggling with the deadly virus, one expects the government has implemented a contact tracing mechanism already! Rouhani also emphasized on increasing the number of daily tests to about 40,000! He said, “there is no limit in our capacity.” Then, why only 6% of the population have been tested and only the symptomatic ones?!
The head of National Task Force admitted the protocols are not enforced by the government saying if they’re just ink on paper, nothing would change. He also made it clear that Iran would be grappling with COVID-19 for another year or two! It looks like they’re preparing people to die of the virus instead of planning something to contain the disease.
Hospitals continue to struggle with flood of patients and shortage of beds, staff and equipment. Physicians have to choose which patient to save, while some have to wait in ambulances or ER for hours to be admitted! Corridors are filled with patients sharing oxygen tanks. Tehran’s polluted air doesn’t help the situation either. Additionally, the lockdown is not enforced and use of public transportation hasn’t changed much, making spread of coronavirus much faster and easier.
Basic Reproduction Rate (R0) increased 3 more points and together with graphs remain the best indicators of the human catastrophe in Iran, even though they’re based on the engineered stats provided by the regime. Critical cases continue to rise and testing remains in the same range despite officials’ promises.
R0: 1.81
Total: 534,631 (+4,251)
Dead: 30,712 (+337)
Healed: 431,360
Critical: 4,771 (+27)
Admitted: 72,559 (-46)
Tests: 4,540,455 (6.1% of the population, assuming each test was performed on 1 person)
