Six Thousand New Coronavirus Cases in Iran in One Day
Confirmed COVID-19 cases in Iran over the course of one day surged sharply compared to the previous day, exceeding 23,000 people. The situation in some areas is described as “critically critical,” and criticism of the Health Minister has intensified more than ever.
The fifth wave of the coronavirus pandemic is spreading more severely than predicted in Iran, and the ineffectiveness and failure to fulfill the Health Minister’s promises have faced increasing criticism.
The Ministry of Health’s Information Center announced on Thursday, July 8 (June 8) that 23,391 new cases of coronavirus were confirmed in Iran in the past 24 hours, and 136 COVID-19 patients died.
Accordingly, the number of new cases increased by more than six thousand in one day and is approaching the highest level during the peak days of the fourth wave of the pandemic in late March and early April.
Nine-fold Increase in Red Cities in Three Weeks
The severe spread of the fifth wave of the pandemic is also evident in the color-coded map of corona-affected cities. Until the end of the third week of Mordad, 13 cities were in red status (extremely high risk), and this number has rapidly increased since the beginning of Tir month, and yesterday it has increased more than nine-fold.
Hossein Farshidi, head of Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences, described the situation in Bandar Abbas as critically critical and said that new hospitalization cases have doubled compared to the peak of the previous wave and have reached eight thousand people.
Severe Bed Shortage in Hormozgan and Sistan and Baluchestan
According to ISNA news agency, Farshidi said Thursday morning in a gathering with journalists that if the trend of cases increases in this manner, the mortality rate will also increase from next week.
He said that in some hospitals, the capacity of intensive care units (ICU) has been filled and “we are facing a severe shortage of beds in the province’s hospitals.”
According to reports, hospitals and medical centers in Sistan and Baluchestan are also facing bed shortages for admitting corona patients, and according to the secretary-general of the Red Crescent Society, the province also faces shortages of medicines and corona diagnostic kits.
Ahmadali Mohabati, governor of Sistan and Baluchestan, had said a week earlier that currently 10 districts in the province have no hospital, and in some cases people have to travel more than 100 kilometers to reach a hospital.
Other provincial officials have repeated similar remarks, and many photos have been posted on social media showing patients being treated in hospital hallways or outside.
Severe Criticism of Health Minister
Saeed Namaki, the Health Minister of the Islamic Republic, on Monday, following increased criticism of hospital facility shortages in Sistan and Baluchestan, called this criticism “rioting, blackening and sedition-mongering” and claimed that in this province there are at least 300 to 400 empty beds.
The Health Minister’s remarks were met with anger from citizens and harsh reactions from some representatives of the province in parliament. Moein al-Din Saidi, representative of Chabahar, addressing Namaki said: “What rioting? Is it rioting that we in southern Sistan and Baluchestan have less than 300 beds from the expanse of Jask to Rask? Is it rioting that there is not even a single infectious ward in this area? Is it rioting that we have only one infectious specialist? The queue of people waiting behind hospital doors for an empty bed, is that rioting? No, none of this is rioting, all of this is reality.”
The governor of Sistan and Baluchestan also said a week earlier: “In a district with 55,000 people there are 2 general practitioners; we have health and medical centers that don’t have vehicles and between 2 of our health centers in the province there is 1,250 kilometers distance, and meanwhile many positions in the health and medical sector of the province are vacant.”
Khorasan newspaper, in sharp criticism of the Health Minister, recalling his unfulfilled promises in recent months, such as turning Iran into a coronavirus vaccine exporter by April or vaccinating 14 million people by the beginning of Tir month, wrote to Saeed Namaki: “Mr. Minister, speak less!”
Based on official statistics from the Ministry of Health, from the beginning of vaccination on February 10 until July 8, a total of just over 6 million 608 thousand doses of coronavirus vaccine have been administered, and the number of people who have been fully vaccinated is no more than approximately 2 million 90 thousand people.
Source: DW
