Health and Hygiene

Al-Monitor – Iran’s health officials said multiple variants of the COVID-19 virus are raging across four southern provinces up to 50% faster than two weeks ago. The rates have now placed much of the country’s impoverished southern and southeastern strip in the country’s “red” infection zone. Iran’s health minister has already warned that the “stubborn” nature of Indian and South African mutations identified in …

Iran-HRM – Ill-treated prisoner of conscience Hossein Sepanta denied medical care Hossein Sepanta a critically ill prisoner of conscience in Adelabad prison in Shiraz, Fars province, has been denied medical access in Shiraz, Fars Province. Sepanta, who has been serving a 13.5-year prison sentence since 2013, suffers from a disorder in his spinal cord, causing him severe pain, numbness, loss of coordination, …

RFL/RE – Iranian authorities say they have given emergency approval for a domestically developed vaccine against COVID-19 as the country battles the Middle East’s deadliest coronavirus outbreak. Health Minister Saeed Namaki told a press conference on June 14 that permission for the emergency use of the vaccine called COVIran Barekat was issued the previous day. The move comes after the country is …

Iranwire – “Until further notice, we have no coronavirus vaccines”. This notice pinned to doors has greeted visitors to many vaccination centers in Iran over the past week. Elderly people aged over 70 are supposed to be receiving their second jab now, but countless patients have been turned away. This is deeply worrying because of the time-frame in which the …

Iran Human Rights (IHR) – Azad Saeedi, a prisoner on hunger strike in Ward 2 of Bukan Prison is in “dire physical condition” according to close sources. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, 39-year-old Azad Saeedi has been on hunger strike since June 2. He is serving a 25 year prison sentence for drug-related charges and has spent …

Iranwire – The wife of the former Shah of Iran, Farah Pahlavi, has penned an open letter to the head of the World Health Organization requesting the allocation of some US-donated Covid-19 vaccines to the Iranian people. In the letter, which was published on Twitter, Farah Pahlavi advised Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus that the Iranian government had “delayed public vaccination, leaving …

Iran-HRM – An Iranian retired teacher Nahid Fathalian has contracted the coronavirus at the women’s ward of the notorious Evin Prison. Retired teacher Nahid Fathalian tested positive for the virus at the women ward of Tehran’s Evin prison. Nahid Fathalian needs to receive proper treatment, while her stay in prison would threaten the health of other prisoners. Evin Prison authorities have …

Iranwire – The National Coronavirus Taskforce has sought to prevent the spread of Covid-19 in Iran through one week of restrictions and a travel ban. But the latter only applies to private vehicles moving between provinces, meaning that would-be travellers have inevitably been mobbing bus terminals instead. Meanwhile, Iran’s vaccination campaign in Iran is still progressing too slowly. According to …

Iranwire – The two coronavirus variants first detected in South Africa and India are still stalking southern Iranian cities. Meanwhile, it has been confirmed that cases of “black fungus” infections have been found among Iranians who recovered from Covid-19. Ahead of the presidential election on June 18, Iran’s National Coronavirus Taskforce has warned about the potential risks of large gatherings. …

Iranwire – The Tehran Journalists’ Association has condemned the violent attack on a journalist in Tehran as she was reporting on a vaccination roll-out, citing it as evidence of how the “insecurity of the journalism profession in Iran” had intensified. Faezeh Momeni, a reporter for Sobh-e newspaper and the Rouydad 24 website, suffered broken fingers on May 18 after she was …