Women in the street in Tehran, Iran, February 25, 2020 (WANA/Reuters)
Iran’s officials have raised the Coronavirus death toll to 43, while denying a BBC Persian report of at least 210 fatalities.
Iran’s officials have raised the Coronavirus death toll to 43, while denying a BBC Persian report of at least 210 fatalities.
The Health Ministry said on Saturday morning that 205 new cases have been confirmed in the past 24 hours, including nine more deaths. The total of confirmed cases is 593.
The Ministry said 123 patients have recovered so far. But their numbers pointed to a spread of the virus across Iran: while only 21 new cases were reported in Qom, the starting point of the epidemic, there are 52 in the capital Tehran, scores across provinces in north and central Iran, and even one in Sistan and Baluchestan in the southeast.
#Coronavirus is almost everywhere in #Iran, except for five provinces (North Khorasan, Zanjan, Kerman, Chaharmahal & Bakhtiari, and Bushehr) so far.
The red ones (South Khorasan and Ilam) are the new ones whose infection was announced today pic.twitter.com/JBR9xlZ0KW— Reza Khaasteh (@Khaaasteh) February 29, 2020
But Ministry spokesman Kianush Jahanpur rejected the claim of more than 210 deaths, while the Foreign Ministry’s Abbas Mousavi scoffed at an offer from the Trump Administration to assist Tehran.
The claim to help Iran in dealing with coronavirus, from a country which with its economic terrorism has created widespread pressure for the people of Iran and even closed the paths for buying medicine and medical equipment, is a ridiculous claim and a political-psychological game.
On Friday, World Health Organization Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said a WHO team will arrive in Iran on Sunday or Monday.
The regime’s leaders have been moving to a grudging admission of the seriousness of the situation. Last Sunday, the Supreme Leader — trying to explain away a historic low in turnout for Parliamentary elections — said news of Coronavirus was a Western plot to spread fear. As late as Wednesday, President Hassan Rouhani was reiterating the theme of a foreign conspiracy, as the Government rejected quarantines.
But at least seven senior officials, including Deputy Health Minister Iraj Harirchi and Vice President Masoumeh Ebtekar, have tested positive.
Iran Daily, Feb 27: Coronavirus — Rouhani Rejects Quarantines as Official Death Toll Raised to 19
And another MP, Gholam Ali Jafazadeh Imanabadi of Rasht in northern Iran, is urging officials to give a reliable death toll.
“You may conceal the numbers, but you cannot hide graveyards,” Imanabadi said.
Tehran City Council member Nahid Khodakarami said that he believes “some 10,000 to 15,000 Iranians may have already contracted the virus”.
