Corona in Iran; Foreign Ministry Forms Vaccine Import Headquarters

694 more people have been added to corona victims in Iran, and six provinces are grappling with the spread of black fungus amid drug shortages. Ibrahim Raisi began the first working day of the thirteenth government with a visit to Behesht Zahra cemetery and a meeting with staff at the mortuary.

359 Iranian cities are in red condition, 59 cities in orange condition, and 30 cities in yellow condition. The Ministry of Health’s Public Relations announced these statistics, reporting the death of 694 patients and the identification of 36,758 coronavirus cases in one day. Of this number, 4,940 people have been hospitalized.

The official statistics of coronavirus deaths until the fourth of Shahrivar reached 104,716 people; a day accompanied by the thirteenth government’s head visiting Behesht Zahra cemetery and meeting with the staff of this cemetery’s mortuary. Ibrahim Raisi visited the mausoleum of Ruhollah Khomeini on the occasion of “Government Week” and during his remarks emphasized that the officials of the Islamic Republic are seeking “service to God” not “service out of benevolence and humanitarianism”.

Ibrahim Raisi in the first cabinet meeting instructed Mohammad Mokhber, his first deputy, and Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, the foreign minister, to seriously follow up on the issue of vaccine production and imports. Such a task was taboo in Rouhani’s cabinet and medicine and vaccine issues were delegated to the Ministry of Health.

After the leader of the Islamic Republic called coronavirus the main issue of the country in late remarks, the tongues of other officials were loosened and each accused the other of negligence in providing vaccines or mismanaging the coronavirus crisis.

Raisi, who had not said anything about the coronavirus crisis in debates, election slogans, or at the ceremony of taking office and oath, during the introduction of cabinet members in parliament, called controlling coronavirus and accelerating vaccination as the priority of the thirteenth government.

Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, Raisi’s foreign minister, said on his first working day: “Our first program is to address the main priority that our people are suffering from. We have formed a headquarters in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to accelerate vaccine imports from various countries and the goal is for all embassies, government sector, and private sector to participate in this process.”

Amir-Abdollahian added that every country would be used for transferring vaccines to Iran and there would be no restrictions on approved vaccines.

Rising statistics of coronavirus deaths in Iran are announced while “Javan” newspaper, close to the Revolutionary Guards, warned that the sixth wave of coronavirus could be dangerous for the “country and system”.

This publication reported from Kourosh Holakouei Nayini, professor of epidemiology at Tehran University of Medical Sciences: “Data is engineered in the Ministry of Health such that if you ask me for a document I don’t have it because I don’t have access to the data, but you can multiply the death statistics by seven.”

Multiple Positions of Health Minister

The formation of a special headquarters for coronavirus vaccine imports in the Foreign Ministry comes at a time when the Ministry of Health is entrusted to someone who was an opponent of importing British and American vaccines and signed a letter to this effect in December 2020 addressed to Hassan Rouhani.

Bahram Einollahi, who appeared without a mask in the parliament confidence vote session among representatives, in a clear shift from his position several months earlier, considered vaccine imports necessary and said: “We have a population of 60 million over 18 years old who each need two doses of vaccine, so we need 120 million vaccines. So far, about 22 million vaccines have been injected. Naturally, the amount of domestic vaccine production does not reach 98 million doses, so we are forced to import vaccines and we get help from everyone who can do this and even use the non-governmental sector, but the Ministry of Health must have oversight because vaccines have a cold chain and vaccines that are administered must also be registered.”

Einollahi, who is also an advocate of traditional medicine, promised that public vaccination would be completed by the end of February this year.

On his first working day as health minister, he went to Masih Daneshvari Hospital and complained about excessive drug consumption. Einollahi said: “Prescribing medicine to some coronavirus patients in some stages is not necessary. Actually, if it’s timely it’s good, but if the necessary time has passed, it has no effect.”

Einollahi, in the margin of a visit to Masih Daneshvari Hospital, while emphasizing that we need scientific protocols to manage coronavirus, said: “Unfortunately there are many contradictions between treatment methods of coronavirus and each person considers a subject as their own treatment. In the future, we should strengthen scientific committees and make more use of knowledgeable people, whose numbers are not few in the country.”

Spread of Black Fungus

The delayed and contradictory efforts of the thirteenth government to contain the coronavirus pandemic and provide vaccines come at a time when the statistics of citizens infected with black fungus disease are increasing. News of 10 people being hospitalized in Imam Khomeini Hospital in Tehran, 20 people in two hospitals in Mashhad, and the identification of several cases in Gilan, Ardabil, Khuzestan, and Mazandaran have been officially confirmed.

At the same time, the director general of pharmaceuticals at the Food and Drug Organization in Iran admitted that the inventory of medicine for treating black fungus in the country has reached zero. It has been stated that the use of coronavirus drugs, including corticosteroids, increases the risk of contracting black fungus disease.

Black fungus is an invasive infectious disease that must be treated quickly. Typically, people’s immune systems ward off fungal infections, but those who have weakened bodies due to underlying diseases, diabetes, cancer, or organ transplants are more susceptible to this disease, and if infected, it threatens their lives.

Black fungus is not contagious, and the reason for its name is the black spots that cover the noses of infected patients.

Source: DW