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Iran Says One Person Dying of COVID-19 Every Two Minutes

Some social media users have criticized the clerical establishment over slow vaccinations, with only about 4% of the 83 million population fully inoculated. (AFP)
Some social media users have criticized the clerical establishment over slow vaccinations, with only about 4% of the 83 million population fully inoculated. (AFP)
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Iran Says One Person Dying of COVID-19 Every Two Minutes

Some social media users have criticized the clerical establishment over slow vaccinations, with only about 4% of the 83 million population fully inoculated. (AFP)
Some social media users have criticized the clerical establishment over slow vaccinations, with only about 4% of the 83 million population fully inoculated. (AFP)

One person is now dying from COVID-19 every two minutes in Iran, state TV said on Monday, as the region’s worst-hit nation reported a new record daily toll of 588 fatalities.

With authorities complaining of poor social distancing, state media say hospitals in several cities have run out of beds for new patients. Some social media users have criticized the clerical establishment over slow vaccinations, with only about 4% of the 83 million population fully inoculated.

Total deaths have reached 94,603, the ministry said, while cases rose by 40,808 in the past 24 hours to 4,199,537 in a fifth wave blamed on the highly transmissible Delta variant.

“Every two seconds one person gets infected in Iran and almost every two minutes one person dies from the coronavirus,” state TV said, adding that most of Iran’s 31 provinces have moved from the lower risk orange level to red alert.

That compares to a reported rate of about one death per three minutes a month ago.

In January, Iran’s top authority Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei banned imports of US- and British-made vaccines, saying they were unreliable and may propagate the infection.

Iran has blamed US sanctions for hampering purchases and deliveries of vaccines from other nations. Food, medicine and other humanitarian supplies are exempt from US sanctions reimposed on Tehran in 2018 after then President Donald Trump abandoned Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal.

Iran’s new President Ebrahim Raisi, who received his first dose of a homegrown COVID-19 vaccine in public on Sunday, has urged officials to speed up vaccinations and to use “all necessary means” for curbing the pandemic, state media reported.

Trying to speed up vaccinations using imported doses as well as its COVIran Barakat shot, Iran is also participating in the COVAX scheme, run by the GAVI alliance and the World Health Organization, that aims to secure fair access for poorer countries.

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France Holds Day of Mourning for Mayotte Islands Devastated by Cyclone

French President Emmanuel Macron (C-R) and his wife Brigitte Macron (C-L) stand for a minute of silence at the Elysee Palace during a day of national mourning for the lives lost after a cyclone hit the Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte, in Paris, France, 23 December 2024. (EPA)
French President Emmanuel Macron (C-R) and his wife Brigitte Macron (C-L) stand for a minute of silence at the Elysee Palace during a day of national mourning for the lives lost after a cyclone hit the Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte, in Paris, France, 23 December 2024. (EPA)
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France Holds Day of Mourning for Mayotte Islands Devastated by Cyclone

French President Emmanuel Macron (C-R) and his wife Brigitte Macron (C-L) stand for a minute of silence at the Elysee Palace during a day of national mourning for the lives lost after a cyclone hit the Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte, in Paris, France, 23 December 2024. (EPA)
French President Emmanuel Macron (C-R) and his wife Brigitte Macron (C-L) stand for a minute of silence at the Elysee Palace during a day of national mourning for the lives lost after a cyclone hit the Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte, in Paris, France, 23 December 2024. (EPA)

France held a national day of mourning for Mayotte, its Indian Ocean territory devastated by a violent cyclone on Dec. 14, beginning in the morning on Monday with a minute of silence for the scores of residents left dead by the storm.

Cyclone Chido was the worst storm to hit Mayotte's two main islands in 90 years, and authorities have said that perhaps thousands of people may have been killed in its wake, though the government's death toll stands at 35.

To commemorate Mayotte's losses, French flags were lowered to half-mast. Separately, flags were flown at half-mast in Brussels and Strasbourg because of Mayotte, as well as following attacks last week on a German Christmas market and in a Croatian school.

"It is a communion in mourning," Prime Minister Francois Bayrou told reporters. He said the day showed solidarity for those in Mayotte, and that France was "present to reconstruct Mayotte and make sure the people of Mayotte feel surrounded by the entire country."

Following the storm, officials say corpses may have been buried quickly per religious custom, before they could be counted, and that many of the people killed may have been undocumented immigrants.

Mozambique has said 94 people died in the disaster, while 13 were killed in neighboring Malawi.

ANGER

The slow pace of aid and delays in the arrival of clean water have angered residents of Mayotte, France's poorest overseas territory located between Madagascar and Mozambique about 8,000 km (4971 miles) from the mainland, with some heckling President Emmanuel Macron during his visit last week.

For Mohamed Abdou, a doctor in Pamandzi, the day of French mourning was a political stunt and did not do enough to account for historic neglect leading up to this point.

"Whether in terms of hospitals, the lack of water infrastructure, electricity, and so on ... at this point, we need to say 'mea culpa' and acknowledge mistakes were made," he told Reuters, speaking from his town in the south of Mayotte's smaller island.

Francois-Noel Buffet, France's acting minister of overseas territories, told France 2 that water - a flashpoint even before the disaster - had made it to the island, saying: "We are not missing water. We have water, notably bottled water. We have a problem with distribution."

Buffet said he expected a special law on the reconstruction of Mayotte to be introduced in early January.

In Paris, Bayrou, France's fourth prime minister this year, is expected to unveil his cabinet Monday evening, though the timing was uncertain. The French presidency said the announcement would not take place before 6:00 p.m. (1700 GMT), to take into account the day of mourning.

Estelle Youssouffa, a lawmaker for Mayotte, criticized the government in an interview with Radio France Internationale for possibly making the announcement on the day of mourning, accusing Bayrou, who had not yet visited the islands, of "humiliating us a second time."