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Special Features

Cities on Red Alert Go from Zero to Nine

February 14, 2021
Pouyan Khoshhal
6 min read
After weeks of relatively low alert levels across Iran, nine cities in Khuzestan province have been moved to red status.
After weeks of relatively low alert levels across Iran, nine cities in Khuzestan province have been moved to red status.
President Hassan Rouhani warned of a fourth wave and Iran’s health minister said the highly contagious UK variant has now spread across many parts of the country.
President Hassan Rouhani warned of a fourth wave and Iran’s health minister said the highly contagious UK variant has now spread across many parts of the country.
The second shipment of the Russian Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine arrived in Tehran on Saturday, February 13.
The second shipment of the Russian Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine arrived in Tehran on Saturday, February 13.

February 13

After weeks of relatively low Covid-19 alert levels across Iran, nine cities, all in the southwest province of Khuzestan, were put on red alert. Health Minister Saeed Namaki said the more infectious UK variant has spread across the country and President Hassan Rouhani warned of a fourth wave of the virus. Meanwhile Iran received 100,000 more doses of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine “ahead of schedule”.

The death of a 71-year-old woman in Tehran and a 48-year-old man in the city of Abyek in Qazvin province “has proved that the [mutated] virus has spread to almost everywhere in the country and we must expect to find this variant in any city, any village and any family,” Health Minister Saeed Namaki said. “Even without the mutated virus we were afraid of a new surge and now, unfortunately, things are happening.” Previously Deputy Health Minister Alireza Raeesi said less than 50 cases of infection with the UK variant had been identified in Iran.

Pointing out that a number of cities in Khuzestan have been put on red alert, President Rouhani said at the weekly meeting of the National Coronavirus Taskforce: “This is a warning for all of us. It means the beginning of moving toward a fourth wave. We all have to be vigilant to prevent this. The country's points of entry, especially from countries with mutated viruses, should be controlled more carefully and the steps to test and quarantine passengers must be strictly observed.”

Rouhani also asked the media and airline offices outside Iran to remind travelers to Iran about the new coronavirus regulations. “Whether they like it or not, everybody must know that whoever enters this country must be tested and if they are infected they must be quarantined,” he said. 

Iran Receives Second Shipment of Russian Vaccine

The second shipment of the Russian Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine arrived at Tehran’s Khomeini International Airport on the morning of February 13. As in the case of the first shipment, contradictory statements were made about the number of doses. Kianoush Jahanpour, speaking for Iran’s Food and Drug Administration, said the second shipment will be used “to vaccinate 100,000 people,” while the media, including the Iranian Labor News Agency (ILNA), reported that the shipment contained 100,000 doses, enough to vaccinate 50,000 people because each recipient of the vaccine must be inoculated twice.

There were also contradictory statements about the first shipment of the Russian vaccine that was delivered to Iran on February 4. Mohammad Reza Shanehsaz, head of the Food and Drug Administration, said the shipment contained 20,000 doses, but Fars news agency, quoting “Health Ministry officials,” reported that it contained 500,000 doses. Eventually it turned out that 20,000 doses had been delivered to Iran - enough to vaccinate 10,000 people. The vaccination of frontline health workers started on February 9.

With the arrival of the second shipment, vaccination of the rest of the 34,000 frontline health workers, other medical staff across the country and then people over 65 and other high-risk groups is to start. According to Iranian officials the third shipment of the Russian vaccine is scheduled to arrive after February 19.

New Travel Restrictions

The ban on out-of-province vehicles entering the three hard-hit northern provinces of Mazandaran, Gilan and Golestan will remain in place for the coming week, according to Colonel Rasoul Ebrahimi, speaking for the National Highway Police, who said the decision was made by the Interior Ministry. Non-local vehicles are also banned from the pilgrimage cities of Qom and Mashhad and favorite vacation destinations including Isfahan, Shiraz and Bandar Abbas, and the islands of Qeshm and Kish.

Before this week, traffic curfew from 9pm to 3am was only enforced in cities on orange alert, but according to Colonel Ebrahimi this curfew will be enforced in all cities in the coming week and violators will be fined.

Provinces Round-up

The coronavirus alert status of Iranian cities is announced every Saturday by the National Coronavirus Taskforce based on the data that it receives from the previous week. Last week there were no cities on red alert but today Health Ministry spokeswoman Dr. Sima Sadat Lari announced that the alert status in nine cities, all in the province of Khuzestan, has been elevated to red.

The number of cities on orange alert has also risen from 36 to 39 and the number on yellow alert from 178 to 228. Currently 172 cities are in a state of blue alert - the lowest state of alert but not completely free of coronavirus - down from 234 a week ago.

With the surge of coronavirus infections in Khuzestan, Valiollah Hayati, deputy provincial governor, announced that restrictions and lockdowns will take effect in red cities, where only essential businesses will be allowed to remain open. “We do concede that businesses will sustain losses, but our first priority is to follow the National Coronavirus Taskforce’s instructions to protect people’s health,” Hayati said.

In Abadan, one of the cities in Khuzestan that is now on red alert, 80 percent of the beds in Taleghani Hospital, the city’s main hospital, are occupied with Covid-19 patients, and the ICUs are completely full, according to Dr. Shokrollah Salmanzadeh, president of Abadan University of Medical Sciences. Provincial officials say other hospitals in southwest Khuzestan might have to accept Covid-19 patients that Abadan can no longer accommodate.

The governor of the neighboring province of Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad, Hossein Kalantari, announced that his province has closed its border with Khuzestan and this restriction will be strictly enforced. He said traffic curfew from 9pm to 4am in all cities in Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad will be enforced as well and all travelers from other provinces besides Khuzestan must test negative with a coronavirus rapid test.

In the same province, after a wedding ceremony in the city of Dehdasht the father of the groom and the manager of the wedding hall were arrested for violating health protocols, according to Abdollah Sa’adatian, Dehdasht’s prosecutor. He also announced that all reception halls in the province will remain closed until further notice.

Currently in Zanjan 136 Covid-19 patients are hospitalized and with the death of another coronavirus patient the official death toll in the province reached 1,151, according to Zanjan University of Medical Sciences. In the past 24 hours seven new Covid-19 patients were hospitalized in the province and in total 19,479 coronavirus patients have been hospitalized in Zanjan.

In Qazvin 122 more people tested positive for Covid-19 and 33 of them were hospitalized, bringing the total number of hospitalizations in the province to 238, according to Qazvin University of Medical Sciences. In the past 24 hours three more Covid-19 patients died and the official death toll in Qazvin reached 1,290. Since the coronavirus outbreak began 17,470 patients have been hospitalized in the province.

Alborz province is adjacent to Tehran and, as a result, it is at the crossroads of coronavirus transmission. In the past 24 hours, with the death of five more Covid-19 patients, the death toll in the province reached 2,712, according to Dr. Mohammad Fathi, president of Alborz University of Medical Sciences. Currently 298 patients with suspected and confirmed cases are hospitalized in Alborz, 39 of whom were hospitalized in the past 24 hours.

The rate of infection in Mazandaran has fallen very slightly, but the situation is very fragile and if people ignore health protocols the province could return to a red state of alert, according to Dr. Abbas Mousavi, president of Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences. Currently 1,030 Covid-19 patients are hospitalized across Mazandaran, 200 of them in intensive care units.

Iran’s Latest Coronavirus Statistics

In her daily briefing for February 13, Health Ministry spokeswoman Dr. Sima Sadat Lari announced the official coronavirus statistics for the past 24 hours:

Cities on Red Alert Go from Zero to Nine

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