Over 490,400 people have died of the novel coronavirus in 547 cities checkered across all of Iran’s 31 provinces, according to reports tallied by the Iranian opposition People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) as of Monday afternoon local time, December 20. The official death toll declared by the regime stands at 131,124, around a fourth of the actual figure.
The coronavirus death toll in various provinces include: 114,820 in Tehran, 39,665 in Razavi Khorasan, 33,775 in Isfahan, 29,675 in Khuzestan, 16,903 in East Azerbaijan, 14,363 in Alborz, 13,177 in Kerman, 9098 in Hamedan, and 4698 in Ilam. This is in addition to reports obtained from other provinces.
The regime’s Health Ministry announced the mullahs’ engineered Covid-19 numbers from the past 24 hours on Monday as 41 deaths and 2390 new cases. Furthermore, 2849 patients are in ICUs and 478 of the new cases have been hospitalized.
Fearing revelations over their concealment of omicron entering Iran, the regime’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) said any and all reports about coronavirus must be through the Health Ministry.
“Based on instructions issued by the SNSC and the National Covid-19 Task Force, any and all reports about coronavirus must be through the Health Ministry. Remarks made by anyone other than officials approved by the Public Relations Center of this Ministry, especially about the new Covid-19 variants, including omicron, are not approved… and prior to the production and publication of such news, they need to be checked by this Ministry,” said the Mohammad Hashemi, caretaker head of the Health Ministry’s Public Relations Center on Sunday, according to the semi-official ISNA news agency.
“Omicron has been in the country for some time now, and of course, today it can once again turn our cities into orange and red zones,” said Mohammad Reza Mahboubfar, a member of the Hygiene/Scientific Education Association on Monday. “Existing vaccines were weak against previous variants, let alone omicron!… Even if the third dose is applied, we should not provide wrong misinterpretations to the general public, and they need to continue abiding by health protocols… Today, many Chinese vaccines are in our customs without any customers, and we are left with a large number of Iranian vaccines. Vaccine doses are cached in our warehouses and will soon reach their expiration dates, and we see people being insisted to receive their third dose. We need to quarantine the country and quarantine doesn’t mean playing with words. In the science of epidemiology there is no such thing as smart quarantine,” he added, according to the state-run Setareyeh Sobh daily.
“Currently the omicron variant has entered the country and we are hearing bad news about this topic. Based on the reports, omicron will be inflicting a large number of people in the span of 17 days. Therefore, we need to tackle this virus in a smarter and more wisely manner. People’s lives should not be risked due to illogical and non-scientific decisions,” said a member of the regime’s Majlis (parliament) Health Commission on Monday, according to the semi-official ISNA news agency.
“Now that the existence of omicron inside the country has been officially confirmed, we must use what time we have left at best to manage the possible crises. The most important concern is the increasing number of patients in the coming days,” said a member of the National Covid-19 Task Force on Monday, according to the Tasnim news agency, a news agency linked to the regime’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) Quds Force.
“The new coronavirus variant is spreading. As a result, we have grave concerns in the current circumstances during which another Covid-19 wave might engulf our society,” said the dean of Shahroud Medical Sciences University on Monday regarding Semnan province, according to the Mehr news agency, an outlet linked to the regime’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS).
“During the past 24 hours 108 coronavirus patients were hospitalized. The total number of patients hospitalized stands at 477, of which 137 are in ICUs and 23 are under ventilators,” according to a statement released on Monday by the West Azerbaijan Medical Sciences University.
“With 89 new patients hospitalized in the past 24 hours, we currently have 608 patients hospitalized, of which 90 are in ICUs,” according to a statement released on Monday by the Shiraz Medical Sciences University regarding Fars province.