The alarms for the sixth wave of COVID-19 in Iran gets louder every day and Islamic Republic officials admit the cases are on the rise while less people are interested in the vaccines used in Iran. According to the regime’s Ministry of Health, number of “red” cities increased again in less than a week from the last update. 6 cities in Kerman, Qazvin, Markazi, Fars and Yazd are added to the “red” areas reaching 22, while 9 in Ilam, Khorasan Razavi, Sistan-Baluchestan, Fars, Qazvin, Gilan and Mazandaran, are upgraded to “orange” from “yellow!” As IranTrue has reported in recent days, critical cases are on the rise in many cities and outpatients surge. However, Islamic Republic does not include the outpatients with symptoms without a PCR test in its manipulated stats. According to Professor Holakoui, the real numbers are 7 times higher.
Alborz officials warn about a spike in outpatients. Karaj Governor expresses his concern about the sixth wave, saying reopening of schools and universities would accelerate the wave and “everybody must be prepared.” Gilan reports more than 100 COVID-19 hospitalizations on a daily basis. Fars officials announced increasing rate of critical cases in province’s hospitals. Shiraz Medical University Spokesman reported 223 hospitalizations in 24 hours and more than 1,660 COVID-19 admitted patients.
On the other hand, vaccination with unapproved and ineffective vaccines continue, but not at a rate that the Islamic Republic has been trumpeting. According to Tehran Governor, only 44% of eligible residents in the capital have received 2 doses and every day less people are going for their shots. Mansouri said the set goal for Tehran is 85%! Mashhad, the second biggest city in Iran, struggling with the same issue. Dr. Hosseini of Mashhad Medical University called the low turnouts at vaccination centers amid concerns of the sixth wave, “extremely concerning!”
Ministry of Health claims total of 81,360,772 shots have been administered in Iran since February 9, while only 30,139,400 (35.88% of population) have received both doses of these vaccines. Students of 12-17 years old are being inoculated with the unapproved Sinopharm and PastoCoVac. While the regime “Supreme Leader” banned US and UK made vaccines in January which led to the deaths of thousands of Iranians, he pushed for “domestic vaccines.” The same vaccines which have failed in fulfilling their promises, including “exporting to other countries.” Instead, the regime has been receiving donations from more than 10 countries, mostly the surplus of their AstraZeneca shots which has been banned in those countries or are close to their expiration dates! Today, South Korea sent another 1million doses of such vaccines to Iran.
At the same time, Chairman of Tehran Corona Combating Committee admitted the “late-night travel ban” in cities is useless in controlling the virus and demanded for it to be stopped. However, the regime has been cashing in on this “policy” and it is one of the very few “protocols” that have been implemented vigorously. Tehran Governor claims he has submitted a request to the National COVID-19 Task Force to cancel the ban. Traffic Police officials, on the other hand, say the ban is in full effect and will be enforced across the country.
The Ministry of Health Spokesperson claimed 140 have died of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours and 7,516 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: 2.04
Total: 5,868,360 (+7,516)
Dead: 125,363 (+140)
Recovered: 5,429,982
Critical: 4,256 (-38)
Active Cases: 313,015 (-5,915)
Total Tests: 34,867,146
Cover: Mina Noei
