Ministry of Health confirms entry of Omicron strain of coronavirus into Iran
With the identification of a confirmed case of the Omicron strain of coronavirus in Iran, experts are warning of its spread within 17 days. Omicron is much more contagious than previously known strains.
After the definitive identification of a case of infection with the Omicron strain of the coronavirus in Tehran, senior officials from the Ministry of Health held an emergency meeting on Sunday morning, December 19.
Mohammad Hashemi, head of the Public Relations Center of the Ministry of Health, said that after discussing and exchanging views, all participants in the meeting emphasized the need to take special measures, comply with health guidelines, and increase the speed of vaccination, especially the third dose.
According to ISNA news agency, the head of the Center for Communicable Disease Management of the Ministry of Health said that the confirmed case of infection with the Omicron strain is a man who traveled to a neighboring country and whose symptoms of infection appeared in that country.
One or two suspicious cases
Mohammad Mahdi did not mention the neighboring country, saying that there are one or two suspected cases of the Omicron strain, the final results of which are not yet available. Deputy Health Minister Kamal Heydari said that the infected person entered Iran from the UAE.
The Omicron strain was first identified in South Africa about a month ago, and the number of daily cases of COVID-19 in the country has increased twenty-fold since then.
Tedros Adhanom, Director-General of the World Health Organization, announced last Tuesday that 77 countries have so far reported the detection of the Omicron strain, warning that given the greater contagiousness of this strain, it is likely to reach most countries.
The exponential increase in infected people
The organization announced yesterday, Saturday (December 18), that the number of countries where the Omicron strain has been reported has reached nearly 90 countries, and the number of infected people in areas affected by it has doubled within one and a half to three days.
The World Health Organization had previously classified Omicron on its list of "concerning" strains, indicating its ability to transmit much more than previously known strains.
The United Kingdom and the Netherlands are among the countries that, despite significant public vaccination coverage, have recently faced an exponential increase in cases of the Omicron strain and have imposed severe restrictions to contain it.
Omicron in neighboring countries
Among the countries in the region and Iran's neighbors, at least Turkey, Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia have so far announced the detection of cases of infection with the Omicron strain of the coronavirus.
Masoud Younesian, secretary of the Epidemiology and Research Committee of the National Scientific Committee for Combating Covid-19, said on Friday about the possibility of Omicron entering Iran: "We must assume that either this strain has already entered our country or will soon. We have even seen this strain in countries that have adopted stricter measures. Therefore, it is optimistic to say that with the measures taken in the country, this virus will not enter Iran."
The highly contagious Omicron strain has reached Iran at a time when the number of cities in red and orange status in the country has dropped to zero two days ago, and the status of 395 cities has become blue (low risk).
Cities turn red in 17 days
A member of the National Scientific Committee for Combating Corona warns: “The thing about Omicron is that if Omicron enters, it will become the dominant strain within 17 days, while this speed was 100 days for Delta. If we detect one case of Omicron in the country today, the country may be affected by Omicron in another 17 days, and the country’s blue map will immediately turn into a red map.”
According to ISNA, Payam Tabarsi told reporters on the sidelines of the committee's meeting on Sunday that, in addition to complying with health protocols, the important thing now is to increase the administration of the third dose of the coronavirus vaccine (a booster dose) to increase citizens' immunity against infection with the Omicron strain.
According to official statistics from the Ministry of Health, from the beginning of vaccination until December 18, nearly 50 million 341 thousand people have received two doses of the vaccine, which is about 60 percent of the total population and about 70 percent of the population over the age of 12.
Slowing down the vaccination process
According to these statistics, so far only slightly more than three million,772,000 people have received the third dose of the vaccine, and the total number of vaccines administered in the past 24 hours has not exceeded 420,000 doses.
After much delay in the first months from September to mid-November, vaccination against the coronavirus in Iran was at an acceptable pace, reaching an average of about one million doses per day.
In recent weeks, the pace of vaccination in Iran has slowed to about 400,000 doses per day. In the second half of December, the number of vaccines administered per day was even lower.
Apparently, the most important reason for the decline in vaccination rates is the reluctance of some citizens to get vaccinated, and the reason for this cannot be a shortage of vaccines.
Customs statistics indicate that so far, more than 150 million and 108 thousand doses of vaccines have entered Iran through 87 stages, nearly 88 percent of which were Chinese Sinopharm vaccines.
The Ministry of Health's Public Relations Office says that as of Sunday (December 18), a total of nearly 113 million and 240 thousand doses of vaccine have been administered across Iran, including booster doses.
Source: DW
