Over 498,700 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 Wednesday afternoon local time, January 19. The official death toll declared by the regime stands at 132,132, around a fourth of the actual figure.
The coronavirus death toll in various provinces include: 116,485 in Tehran, 34,570 in Isfahan, 17,233 in East Azerbaijan, 13,472 in Kerman, 13,400 in Qom, 9339 in Kermanshah, 9093 in Markazi (Central), and 5869 in Qazvin. 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 Wednesday as 19 deaths and 4060 new cases. Furthermore, 1271 patients are in ICUs and 330 of the new cases have been hospitalized. The 4060 new coronavirus cases in the past 24 are twice the numbers seen last week.
“This week omicron will probably become the main variant across the country. This week some provinces reported that all their cases were of omicron,” said the director of Iran’s Epidemiology Committee on Wednesday, according to the Mehr news agency, an outlet linked to the regime’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS).
“It appears that omicron is spreading extremely fast. In four weeks, we may witness another peak of the coronavirus pandemic, and 40 percent of the test results show omicron,” said Masoud Mardani, a senior member of the National Covid-19 Task Force on Wednesday, according to the regime’s official IRNA news agency.
“Children are one of the groups that are facing a high number of new coronavirus cases because we have not carried out vaccination among children under the age of 12,” said a member of the National Covid-19 Task Force Scientific Committee on Wednesday, according to the Fars news agency, an outlet linked to the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC).
“The number of new cases is increasing at a fast pace”
The new coronavirus wave will begin in the coming one or two weeks, reaching its peak in four weeks’ time,” said Minoo Mohraz, a senior member of the National Covid-19 Task Force on Wednesday, according to the semi-official ILNA news agency.
“Omicron in Tehran is heading to become the main variant, and 45 to 50 percent of the new cases in Tehran are omicron. Among children we have nearly the same number of influenza and omicron cases,” said Nader Tavakoli, deputy chair of the Tehran Covid-19 Task Force on Wednesday, according to the semi-official ISNA news agency.
“The main number of coronavirus cases is omicron,” said the secretary of the Bushehr Covid-19 Task Force on Wednesday, adding that the number of people seeking initial medical care has increased by 20 percent, according to the state-run ISKA News outlet.
“In the coming weeks, we will be facing the threat of a serious increase in omicron cases. This will result in concerns and sound alarm bells for [Fars] province and can lead to a serious threat to people’s health,” according to a statement released on Wednesday by the Shiraz Medical Sciences University.
