Head of Ahvaz Medical University warns about the sixth wave of COVID-19 in Iran in November and expresses his concern about overloaded hospitals. Dr. Abolnejadian said the sixth wave in addition to fall respiratory diseases and allergies would create a huge load on hospitals and staff that requires preparation. The constant increase in cases in the past week, at the same time as Arbaeen “pilgrims” returning to the country is no coincidence but predicted. According to the undercounted data of Islamic Republic Ministry of Health, from September 28 to October 4, infection cases have increased between 15-20% every day.
Meanwhile, Mashhad, the second biggest city in Iran and one of the hardest hit cities with Delta variant during the fifth wave of COVID-19, is preparing about 20km (12.4miles) of its streets for “mourning ceremonies of Safar’s last days” which includes death anniversaries of the “Prophet, Imam Hassan and Imam Reza!” Another march of “pilgrims” while Arbaeen ones are still returning from Iraq with coronavirus as their souvenir.
Delta variant keeps its rampage going in the western parts of Iran. Kermanshah has more than 1,000 hospitalized, while 420 were admitted “temporarily to receive Remdesivir injection.” Eastern Azerbaijan reported more than 1,500 hospitalized COVID-19 patients, while more than 780 are in Alborz hospitals.
On the other hand, vaccination of students 12-18 years old with ineffective and unapproved Sinopharm continues. Islamic Republic officials are pushing to have schools reopen by mid-November. The regime which has trumpeted about its COVIran Barekat, Fakhra, PastoCoVac,… and used its propaganda network to support Khamenei’s decision in banning US and UK made vaccines and wanted to “export” its “homegrown vaccines” to US and other countries, keep accepting donations from other countries! Today, Italy donated 1.2m doses of AstraZeneca, according to Italy’s Ambassador to Tehran. Islamic Republic media have avoided naming the vaccine in the Persian version of their websites! AstraZeneca has been scarce in the country with much demand.
The Ministry of Health claimed total of 58,759,840 shots have been administered in Iran since February 9, and only 16,950,755 (20.17% of population) have received both doses. The Spokesperson also announced 238 have died of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours and 14,607 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 288,000 have died of the disease since February 202. Graphs illustrate the ongoing humanitarian catastrophe in the past 19 months.
R0: 2.19
Total: 5,638,735 (+14,607)
Dead: 121,347 (+238)
Recovered: 5,115,796
Critical: 5,727 (-31)
Active Cases: 401,592 (-5,800)
Total Tests: 32,619,228
