COVID-19 crisis in Iran is getting worse by the minute and Ministry of Health officials are preparing people to hear about higher number of deaths in the upcoming days while blaming them for not following the “protocols.” However, there are some health experts blaming the government for inefficient protocols, lack of their enforcement and late intervention in many occasions.
Dr Iraj Harirchi, Deputy Health Minister, warns the number of deaths would be above 200 per day for the next few weeks while comparing it to an average of 68 per day deaths during 8-years of Iran-Iraq war. He admitted the 1-2 week Tehran lockdown may not be enough to lower the infections. Dr Payam Tabarsi, head of Infectious Disease in Masih Daneshvari hospital in Tehran, reported more than 5,000 admitted patients in Tehran city hospitals alone, calling it a “catastrophe.” He said, “based on WHO stats, 12% of them may die. We should be hearing many of these patients die in the next few days.”
Dr Tabarsi criticized the National Task Force actions and decisions or lack thereof, saying stricter lockdown for at least 1 month in Tehran is required. He also said traffic in the city and between cities must be banned to cut off the chain of coronavirus spread. He added, “we don’t need officials’ constant oration but need actions.” Unfortunately, none of these have been done, and it’s been more than 7 months! All of these have been part of our suggestions MONTHS ago! However, Islamic Republic President has postponed deciding about more actions to next week’s National Task Force meeting!
Dr Alireza Naji, head of virology laboratory at Masih Daneshvari, said Tehran lockdown for a week is not enough and is too late! He also pointed out, now it’s clear why experts didn’t want Muharram gatherings to be held and schools reopen! He emphasized that coronavirus spread has not been controlled in Iran for more than 7 months! That’s direct contradiction to what Hassan Rouhani and Saeed Namaki had previously claimed.
Sima Sadat Lari presented the stats for the past 24 hours while Iran International published stats for the past 48 hours based on Tehran Morgue and as usual, they don’t add up! According to Ministry of Health, 3,653 new COVID-19 cases and 211 deaths have been confirmed since yesterday in the entire country. 179 deaths were confirmed for Friday, Oct 2. Tehran Morgue, on the other hand, recorded 105 deaths on Friday and 136 for Saturday! That translates to 62% of deaths have occurred in 1 city, while the entire country is in critical condition. According to the same report, since the pandemic has began, there have been 13,141 deaths in Tehran, almost half of what Ministry of Health has announced for Iran as a whole.
Number of active cases keep rising while testing remains in the same range and recoveries fluctuates. Critical cases increase and ICU beds are all full across the country. In the meantime, Basic Reproduction Rate (R0) increased 1 point and graphs show the unstopped COVID-19 while Islamic Republic watches and stir up chaos in the country!
R0: 1.65
Total: 471,772 (+3,653)
Dead: 26,957 (+211)
Healed: 389,966
Critical: 4,154 (+27)
Admitted: 54,849 (+1,151)
Tests: 4,123,173 (4.9% of the population, assuming each test was performed on 1 person)
Cover: Aria Jafari
