Clerics visit a hospital during the Coronavirus crisis, Tehran, Iran


As Iran’s official death toll from Coronavirus steadily rises beyond 4,000, The Washington Post publishes first-hand accounts from Iranians of the regime’s failure to prepare, chaos, and overwhelmed hospitals.

The newspaper obtained records from 56 hospitals in Tehran, leading to contact with Coronavirus survivors and the families of victims.

An architecture student summarizes, “Awareness-building was way too late. Many people were already infected.”

Regime officials were aware in January of the threat of the virus reaching Iran from China, the initial epicenter. But there was no public notification until the first case was announced on February 19.

With the regime focused on turnout for Parliamentary elections on February 21, officials played down any threat. Immediately after the election, with a historically-low participation of 42.5%, the Supreme Leader said fear of the virus was a “Western plot”. President Hassan Rouhani, rejecting quarantines, cited “foreign conspiracies” to undermine the Islamic Republic’s economy.

See also Iran Daily, April 3: Officials and Doctors — Regime’s Slow Coronavirus Response Due to Elections and China

A 23-year-old unemployed teacher from Tehran was initially diagnosed with flu before testing positive for the virus:

I got infected in Mashhad in late February. We would not have traveled to other cities if we knew the risk was so high. There was not enough awareness raising at the time. Now there is, but I think it is too late.

She is still suffering from kidney pain, shortness of breath and fatigue. While she “hears” from the media that they are taking it seriously now”, she repeats, “I think it’s too late.”

A 50-year-old farmer speaks of taking his father to a Tehran hospital, only to find “panicking” nurses shouting, “Corona! Corona!”.

He took his father back to the countryside, unaware that a Coronavirus test was positive.

The farmer said of the social distancing measures finally implemented by the Rouhani Government:

Everything that happened in the past week should have been done 40 days ago, two months ago. It has been too late. Maybe it was because of [the anniversary of Iran’s revolution], maybe because of the election. Nobody knows why they waited so long to take these actions.

See also Iran Daily, April 10: Coronavirus — Rouhani Says Social Distancing “Must Be Observed By All”

The architecture student also speaks of medical staff unable to cope with the surge of patients, with her father released from hospital despite still showing symptoms: “He should not have been released at all, but they said they do not have space for him anymore. It is very hard for him.”

Maedah, 50, took her husband Alireza to hospital with breathing problems in late February. He died two days later.

My husband passed away because of a heart attack, but he could have received better medical care if it was not for of the load of corona patients and the chaos in the hospital.

I do not think the real statistics are being released, mostly because they don’t want people to panic. But I think people need to know the real statistics. When my husband when to Loghman Hospital, we saw many families losing a dear one.