As COVID-19 cases begin to rise across Iran, less and less people are interested to receive the vaccines used in the country. As if there was not enough mistrust between people and the regime, today’s report about Barekat Company importing the Chinese Sinopharm, exacerbated the situation. Even though the Ministry of Health issued a denial, but the fact remains that letter has been authenticated by sources and media inside Iran.
Mashhad Medical University expressed concern over reduced turnout for vaccination in the second biggest city of Iran. The Spokesperson for the university reported 250,000 missed their appointments for the second shot. 25% of eligible residents in Alborz province also have opted out to receive vaccine at all. Fars is experiencing a surge in cases across the province and officials warn that the “normalization” will change the “color” of the cities soon. Head of Kermanshah Cemetery admitted there have been days with more than 30 “suspected” COVID-19 burials in his cemetery and said the number of daily deaths are rising again.
On the other hand, while UK and several other countries are actively screening for new variants and are concerned about the spread of Delta Plus strain, the Islamic Republic has failed to do any screening or have done very little, during the entire 20+ months of the pandemic in Iran. However, Dr. Dehghani of Birjand Medical University in South Khorasan province expressed his worry about the surge in cases of Delta Plus in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Turkey, warning the variant may be spreading in Iran too.
The Ministry of Health claimed since February 9, total of 86,137,470 shots have been administered in Iran and only 33,674,073 (40.08% of population) have received both doses of these vaccines.
The Ministry of Health Spokesperson claimed 177 have died of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours and 8,427 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 302,000 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: 5,924,638 (+8,427)
Dead: 126,303 (+177)
Recovered: 5,508,815
Critical: 3,888 (-54)
Active Cases: 289,520 (-5,876)
Total Tests: 35,516,399
Cover: Ali Moaref
