Dr. Roghani, head of Coordinating Council of Physicians in Chahrmahal-Bakhtiari, calls the premature reopening of the country despite continuous warnings about the sixth wave of COVID-19 in Iran, “mistake after mistake!” He sounded the alarm for kids and unvaccinated adults in the next wave, saying, kids will be the ones with most serious illnesses and “we don’t have enough ICU beds for that age range.” Roghani added, until more than 80% of population are not fully vaccinated, officials must not hastily reopen schools and businesses.
Dr. Tabarsi, member of Scientific Committee of National COVID-19 Task Force, reiterated Roghani’s points and emphasized the reopenings are premature until 85% of population are fully vaccinated! He also criticized the disorganization in reopenings since there is no directive or plan on finding new cases at workplaces or schools. “In general, we’re terrible in case finding,” Tabarsi said. The head of infectious-disease ward at Masih Daneshvari Hospital in Tehran, said the 100,000 daily tests is not enough.
Meanwhile, Lorestan, South Khorasan, Kermanshah, Zanjan, Khuzestan and Kerman, join other provinces with increasing number of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations including, Fars, Mazandaran, Gilan, West Azerbaijan, East Azerbaijan, Kohgiloyeh-Boyerahmad, Markazi and Yazd. Fars reported a rise in critical cases in the province.
Despite all the warnings, remote working has been cancelled in more provinces, with Chaharmahal-Bakhtiari and Alborz joining others.
While the Islamic Republic is “proud of the vaccination speed” in the country and has put in mandates for all employees and businesses, the Chinese Sinopharm, with more than 82% of jabs in Iran, has been proved to be preventing infection by 5% efficacy only. Dr. Ziyaei from Birjand confirmed the results of the study which was conducted in Shiraz. The same vaccine has been used on students 12-17 years old and with only 50% of them receiving 1 dose of this unverified vaccine for the age range, the schools are reopened across the country.
The Ministry of Health Spokesperson claimed 124 have died of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours and 7,081 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 300,000 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: 5,851,670 (+7,081)
Dead: 125,052 (+124)
Recovered: 5,402,865
Critical: 4,346 (-76)
Active Cases: 323,753 (-7,412)
Total Tests: 34,658,805
Cover: Tahmineh Rahmani
