IRANAVIRUS
210 people have died from coronavirus in Iran, far higher than the 34 reported by the government. The number makes the country the most infected outside China and presents a catastrophic risk of spreading across the Middle East...
The outbreak emerged in the holy city of Qom قم , two hours from Tehran and the epicentre of Shi‘a. The illness has spread to twenty-four other provinces including the capital and Gilan. The streets are a sea of surgical masks and many Iranians are afraid to leave their houses despite the president's advise to 'continue work and activities'...
The Iranian government have been accused of covering up the death toll and downplaying the severity of the situation. In an early analysis published on Monday, six Canadian epidemiologists calculated that Iran probably had more than eighteen thousand cases of coronavirus. Iran's state media have rejected BBC Persian's figure based on an independent tally of hospitals from across the country. The nation's cyber police have also arrested 24 people and cautioned 188 for spreading information about the infection. The regime recently denied killing more than 1,500 Iranians and took three days to admit downing a Ukrainian passenger jet killing all 176 on board...
There are reports coming in that Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the British-Iranian incarcerated in Tehran on espionage charges, may have contracted the illness in prison. Coronavirus has gripped the globe in what is the most severe viral outbreak since the 2003 SARS. 3,168 people have died and 92,880 have been infected. In South Korea more than 1,250 have contracted the disease, while in Italy seven people have been killed amid 229 confirmed cases. America has reported two deaths while the United Kingdom has 23 incidents. As people are being told to 'wash their hands' and schools and offices are being shut down, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus had this to say on Monday: 'the window of opportunity for containing it is narrowing... We need to be preparing side by side for a pandemic'...
Neighbouring countries have closed their borders and disinfected places of worship. This has not prevented a number of cases emerging in Iraq and Afghanistan leading to the fear that the disease has infiltrated the war-torn region...
The Iranian government have been accused of covering up the death toll and downplaying the severity of the situation. In an early analysis published on Monday, six Canadian epidemiologists calculated that Iran probably had more than eighteen thousand cases of coronavirus. Iran's state media have rejected BBC Persian's figure based on an independent tally of hospitals from across the country. The nation's cyber police have also arrested 24 people and cautioned 188 for spreading information about the infection. The regime recently denied killing more than 1,500 Iranians and took three days to admit downing a Ukrainian passenger jet killing all 176 on board...
A disproportionate number of officials have also claimed to have contracted COVID-19. Deputy Health Minister Iraj Harirchi was spotted sweating and wiping his forehead during a press conference and later isolating himself despite saying: 'Iran opposed quarantines, because they belonged to an era before the First World War—“to the plague, cholera, stuff like that.”' Vice President Masoumeh Ebtekar has also professed to catching the infection as has the chairman of the Committee on National Security and Foreign Policy, the mayor of a district in Tehran and a senior cleric who had served as Iran’s Ambassador to the Vatican. Qom's Friday prayer leader has pinned the epidemic on Donald Trump and Ayatollah Khamenei has blamed 'negative propaganda' about the virus to be the cause of low voter turn out in the recent election...
The reason for the unprecedented outbreak stems from the government's lack of quarantine and continuing to allow flights. The regime have close trade ties with the Chinese government having been propped up by them during oil sanctions alongside Russia. Hassan Rouhani has ruled against placing Qom in quarantine, a system that proved successful in Wuhan, and that 'from Saturday, activities across the country must continue like previous weeks'...
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told reporters on Tuesday that 'the United States is deeply concerned by information indicating the Iranian regime may have suppressed vital details about the outbreak in that country.' Before a congressional committee on Friday the former United States Army Officer stated that the administration 'have made offers to the Islamic Republic of Iran to help'. Iranian journalist and activist Masih Alinejad has blasted Iran's government and exposed disturbing tales from the ground including a child licking a shrine and a clinic turning a woman away for not wearing a chādor...