Arbaeen “pilgrims” returning to Iran from Iraq remain a major concern for health experts. While they emphasize on PCR testing of every single passenger as the only way to screen for COVID-19 cases, the regime officials, including Red Crescent Society which is in charge of screening incoming passengers at ports of entry, only express their “readiness to screen” and “perform PCR tests on suspicious cases.” That reminds us of the “diagnosis with eye!” However, after more than 19 months, it’s well established that carrier cases may not show any symptom but spread the virus. In the meantime, the first batch of “pilgrims” have arrived at IKA in Tehran, but “no PCR or any screening was performed.”
On the other hand, less than a week after the Islamic Republic Health Minister had announced Pfizer and J&J vaccines will be imported from Belgium for pregnant women, the Ministry of Health issued a statement, calling pregnant women to get their Sinopharm vaccine as there would be no Pfizer. “The scientific committee of the vaccination task force has reached this decision!” According to reports, Eynollahi fired Dr. Asadi-Lari, head of International Office of the Ministry, for insisting on importing Pfizer and J&J, and personally stopped the importation. It is worth noting, Khamenei banned US and UK made vaccines in January and Eynollahi was one of the physicians who signed a letter praising “Supreme Leader’s decision!”
While experts emphasize at least 85% of population must receive both doses of vaccines in order to reach some sort of “immunity” in the society, Islamic Republic officials have begun reducing restrictions under the false pretense that 70% of population has been “vaccinated!” Misusing the word “vaccinated” since the immunization process began in Iran, has made a dangerous situation. According to officials, Qazvin is the first province to start off the “smart quarantine” program from next week.
Ministry of Health data indicate total of 53,809,661 shots have been administered in Iran since February 9 and only 16,060,951 (19.12% of population) have received both doses, most of whom have been inoculated with ineffective Sinopharm and COVIran Barekat. The Spokesperson also claimed 272 died of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours and 13,271 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 in Iran. Graphs illustrate the catastrophic crisis management of the Islamic Republic in the past 19 months!
R0: 2.25
Total: 5,572,962 (+13,271)
Dead: 120,160 (+272)
Recovered: 5,009,673
Critical: 6,016 (-108)
Active Cases: 443,129 (-8,565)
Total Tests: 32,087,135
Cover: Ali Abdollahi
