Every day is gloomy for Iranians but today was especially grim because according to the undercounted data of Ministry of Health, COVID-19 broke all its records in Iran! Ministry of Health Spokesperson announced 6,968 new cases of coronavirus infections have been identified by positive PCR tests and 346 have died of the deadly virus in the past 24 hours. Critical cases have reached 4,995 and active cases increased by 2,261! All of which are the highest numbers since the epidemic began in February 2020!
Sima Sadat Lari was the bearer of another bad news too! According to her, 25% of nurses in the country have contracted the virus so far and more than 3,165 have taken sick leave. Ministry of Health Spokesperson mentioned 649 hospitals throughout Iran are involved in admitting COVID-19 patients. In addition to all that, more than 8 months struggling with the disease and not getting paid their benefits, have made front line fighters against coronavirus extremely vulnerable.
While all of these records breaking numbers are the results of Muharram gatherings, Arbain rituals, Konkour and schools reopening, yesterday another religious gathering was held in Mashhad. Thousands of people attended. Sima Sadat Lari called it a “true crime”, “unbelievable” and said after the ceremony everybody says they don’t know who has issued the permit! In another reaction, head of Mashhad Medical University said the gathering was very worrisome and called it “factory of the disease.” He reiterated that the university and Ministry of Health had not issued any permit for this gathering but seems like Islamic Propaganda Organization has decided to hold it. They have not considered the implications!
All provinces report full hospitals and “critical” situation but there’s nothing Islamic Republic could do to slow down or stop the virus. The hypocritical attitude and missing the golden period in which they could have lockdown and prevent the spread of coronavirus has passed! Allowing religious gatherings have only worsen the situation.
The fragile economy caused by Islamic Republic’s haphazard management and corruption have made life even more intolerable for Iranians. With inflation rate through the roof and daily increase in all essential items, most people can’t even afford to buy a mask to protect themselves against the virus but Islamic Republic has started fining those, twice the price of a mask! Hashemi, Chairman of City of Tehran Council has complained that the government doesn’t take the crisis seriously to shut down Tehran for 2 weeks! But Rouhani has already said it clearly, quarantining Tehran is not an option.
Unsurprisingly, Basic Reproduction Rate (R0) jumped 5 points to 2.01 which indicates how dreadful the COVID-19 crisis is in Iran. The graphs show the ever growing number of active cases and the unstoppable virus!
R0: 2.01
Total: 581,824 (+6,968)
Dead: 33,299 (+346)
Healed: 463,611
Critical: 4,995 (+13)
Admitted: 84,914 (+2,261)
Tests: 4,786,769 (6.2% of the population, assuming each test was performed on 1 person)
