Kianoush Jahanpur, the Spokesman for Ministry of Health, announces 1,972 new confirmed cases and 122 deaths in the past 24 hours, the diagrams show you the difference over days. He said, “8 provinces show increased number of cases including Tehran, Isfahan, Khorasan Razavi,… which are tourist destinations usually.” He urged everybody to stay at home and said, “242,568 tests have been done in 95 labs across the country so far.” He emphasizes on “stay-at-home” instructions while the president keeps insisting for everybody to go to work and normal economical activities from tomorrow, April 11. Of course, a few businesses such as hair salons, gyms,…(which may account for a fraction of the population) stay closed until further notice.
Total: 68,192
Dead: 4,232
Healed: 35,465
Critical: 3,969
In the meantime, Iran International reports 8,833 deaths, an increase of 734 in 4 days. Comparing the numbers with previous update shows lower incremental rate but more deaths in almost all provinces! More than 18,000 killed is another number reported from inside the Supreme National Security Council meeting.
He implicitly in response to a question about COVID-19 listed as the cause of death on death certificates after the patient is deceased, said, “There is no test done after death. It’s all the doctor’s call on what to put as the cause of death, and that would be our reference.” There have been reports of intelligence services pressuring the healthcare staff on listing “ARDS” or “pneumonia” as the cause of death.
Jahanpur continued by talking about developing and producing ELISA (Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay) kits for a faster, cheaper and more accessible test. He said, “These tests can be used for multiple purposes. They show if somebody has been exposed to the disease, when it’s happened, and how immune they are to the disease!!” Although ELISA kits (for any disease) could be both qualitative and quantitative, they cannot be used to determine the time or level of immunity against a disease!
In a new revelation regarding the old news of falsified government numbers, the head of Baghiyat Allah hospital has said there have been more than 14,000 COVID-19 patients admitted in the hospital till April 9! This hospital is mainly for IRGC affiliated personnel and their families. It is also one of 18 hospitals in Tehran, and the 105 hospitals designated for Coronavirus infected patients. Considering the “official” numbers on that day, how is it possible that one hospital could serve almost 21% of all patients in the country!?! Or probably the “official” numbers are malarkey? Some food for thought.
In an open letter to the parliament members, Jafar Mohammadi, editor-in-chief of Asr-e-Iran daily newspaper, warned representatives that premature normalization of the society’s activities will lead to the deaths of their constituents. In part of his letter, he says, “Mortality and infection rate of Coronavirus is still high. During the first 3 weeks of Farvardin (March 20-April 10), because of New Year holidays, business restrictions, 1/3 of government employees going to work, and traffic restrictions, social interactions have been very low. Now, despite all experts warning against loosening the restrictions and opening up businesses, the government strangely insists on going back to normal conditions.”
We have said it before, the government has to choose between kill or be killed kind of situation. Destination? Dead end!