Not surprising that after yesterday’s Khamenei’s speech and his conspiracy theories, today officials announced Iranians scientists are working on these theories assessing the virus to see if it was man-made and if it is specifically targeting Iranian genes. Khamenei accused US of attacking Iran with Coronavirus and refused to accept any help from them. He said there are reports of a version of this virus is made specifically for Iranians! He also said jinns are cooperating with foreign intelligence services to attack Iran in any way they can. Isn’t this fascinating?! Iranians are struggling and the “leader” is busy coming up with excuses and nonsense theories on how to explain this catastrophic mismanagement and coverup!
Ministry of Health announced 1411 new confirmed cases and 127 deaths in the past 24 hours due to Coronavirus, the official refused to give specific numbers for each province, saying that practice is stopped for now, making us to believe another cover up may be in the works. However, he said it was to keep up the good spirit among healthcare workers in different provinces. According to Kianoush Jahanpur, the Ministry of Health Spokesman, there have been more than 58,000 tests done so far, of which a total of 23,049 led to positive results. That is almost 40% of the people tested!! He also said, “We are doing 6,000 tests a day which would increase to 10,000 in the coming days, therefore the number of confirmed cases may increase as well.”
Total: 23,049
Dead: 1,811
Healed: 8,376
Jahanpur also said “there are 2500 ICU beds across the country for COVID-19 patients which are all occupied and have no ICU bed available at this time.” This alone shows the magnitude of the crisis. He added, “More than 84% of infected people in Iran would have mild symptoms and therefore wouldn’t need any treatment and self-quarantine should resolve it. 15.8% have severe symptoms, and 12.3% need ICU admission. In response to a question about “clear areas”, he said, “All areas of Iran are involved and assuming there is a less involved area is wrong.” He added, “Martial law is not possible to be implemented in Iran, due to our economic and social structures.”
US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, responded to Khamenei’s claims:
Most provinces have closed down their tourist attractions, ordered their non-essential businesses to close, and the majority of people are following the self-quarantine instructions but still looks like this virus is unstoppable. Mostly because it was hidden from people for so long, not quarantining the epicenters, mainly Qom, and continuing Mahan Air flights to/from China.
Islamic Republic received the 7th WHO shipment of aids, including medicine and supplies. This cargo included 2,499 sheets of Lopinavir/Ritonavir, HIV antivirals which have shown some effects in treating Coronavirus. The shortage of medical supplies is constantly getting worse even though the regime has received tonnes of cargo from different countries. But they end up in black markets or IRGC hoards them to spike up the price, and worsen the shortage in order to pressure the international community to get some sanction relief.
The problem is not only the virus, but the whole Islamic Republic managing it!
Cover photo: Marjan Yazdi; NPR