Death number is going higher and higher, looking like the peak is not here yet. 113 patients lost their lives to COVID-19 since yesterday, according to official numbers. This is again a new record in lives lost in a 24-hour period. 1209 new cases have been confirmed as well in the same time period.
Total: 13,938
Dead: 724
Healed: 4,790
Ministry of Health spokesman repeated the government’s request for people to stay at home and avoid any kind of travels in Persian New Year holidays (starting March 20).
In the meantime, Iran International, a news agency based in London, reports 127 deaths in the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 2091. Tehran, Qom, Isfahan, Gilan, Khorasan Razavi and Mazandaran have the most deaths. Alborz and East Azerbaijan provinces will be joining the 100+ club in the next few days.
Dr. Zali, chief of Corona Combating Team in Tehran says, “We haven’t given people the right information, leading to people not taking the disease serious enough. In our survey, 62% believe they won’t catch Coronavirus and 40% think staying home is futile.” It’s worth mentioning, since the beginning of the outbreak, IRIB and government have been downplaying COVID-19.
It looks like quarantining any city in Iran is out of question according to President Hassan Rouhani, but provinces are doing it on their own, not allowing entering/exiting from their borders, including Khuzestan which has reported increasing numbers of deaths and infected cases. Armed Forces have been put in charge of clearing out the cities by direct order from the Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, especially big cities such as Tehran, Qom, Rasht, Mashhad, and Isfahan, but still they deny it’s happening. It looks like the “hidden government” (IRGC) and “Rouhani’s” are in direct conflict with each other, playing with nation’s lives and sacrificing people for their own gain.
Some parliament members continue pointing fingers at Mahan Air for bringing the virus into the country flying to/from China when COVID-19 outbreak started there, and not stopping the flights after the official announcement of first cases on February 19. Qom officials claim the source of the first case is not known and mentioning Qom as the ground zero is because the enemy wants to tarnish Qom’s name. Lieutenant Governor goes one step further and threatens anybody who insults Qom on social media, or in public would be prosecuted. They call this enemy’s “Qom intimidation project”. A clergy school official in Qom said, “The first case was diagnosed in Qom and this means the country owes Qom. Patient zero is unknown.” This is opposite of what head of Mashhad’s University of Medical Sciences said, that more than 700 Chinese clergy students in Qom were the origin of the disease in Iran.
In the middle of all these Coronavirus deaths and mismanagement, fake ethanol and rumors about drinking alcohol preventing you from contracting the virus or treating it, have taken more than 100 lives so far. Some people mix methanol with bleach which makes the methanol to become colorless, just like ethanol. Khuzestan announced 51 and Fars 31 who died from alcohol poisoning.
Coronavirus crisis has turned into chaos. Nobody knows or confirms the other official. There are 100 people in charge, each playing their own music. People don’t know whom to trust, of course making them confused, and not taking it seriously, not following self-quarantining instructions, leading to nothing but a vicious cycle and a huge chaos.
Shortage of masks and disinfectant solutions continue while black market is booming. Foreign Ministry Spokesman has tweeted that many countries have sent help including supplies and cash but as we know already, they have ended up in IRGC warehouses and black market.
Islamic Republic officials have always manage a crisis with a new one, you can find examples throughout 41 years of their history. But this time, this crisis is for them to play the victim and plead their case to pressure US into lifting the sanctions. However, there is no truth to it. We’ll take on their claim soon and expose their lies in that regard as well.
WHO and other international organizations need to take control and supervise the management of this crisis. The Islamic Republic doesn’t care about people’s lives.