Updates for Feb 24, Feb 23 and up to Feb 22 are posted on their individual posts.
Feb 25, 2020 stat is not pretty. The government tries to play it down, but just a few minutes ago they announced the number of patients risen to 98, 15 dead (+53), and spread to 4 more provinces, making it 11 provinces. That means 34 confirmed cases in less than a day. After hiding Coronavirus for more than 3 weeks, the scale of devastation in Iran is beyond belief.
Update @12:30AM Feb 26 local time: 3 new cases are confirmed in Ahvaz, SW Iran.
Update @12:15AM Feb 26 local time: Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, former Tehran City Mayor and Presidential candidate who just was elected into the parliament, is admitted at Firouzgar Hospital in Tehran as a suspected case of Coronavirus.
*Note: His advisor, Mahmoud Mortazavi, on Feb 26, said he has H1N1 and not COVID-19. His case remains a mystery for now.
Update @23:45 local time: 4 people have been arrested on Gilangharb for spreading news/rumors in social media and local channels.
Tabriz flights to Turkey are all canceled.
Qeshm tourism docks are all closed.
Update @23:00 local time: Believe it or not, this is what Shamkhani, Secretary of Supreme National Security Council has said:
Update @22:13 local time: Kashan, Isfahan, bans all kinds of gatherings in town, including weddings, prayer in mosques, funerals,…
However, there hasn’t been any case reported from this town, “officially”.
Update @21:30 local time: First official case in Yazd. Number of provinces involved with Coronavirus reaches 12, 5 new provinces today.
Update @21:10 local time: (Controversial, some sources denied his test results and say he’s alive and well) Grand Ayatollah Shobeyri Zanjani has died of COVID-19 infection. His office manager passed away earlier. His entire family are in quarantine now.
[email protected]:48 local time: Mahmoud Sadeghi, a member of parliament, joins the officials with positive Coronavirus test result. He says, “I don’t have much hope living this life anymore.” He adds, “Mr. Raeisi (Head of Judiciary Department), families of political prisoners request their loved ones be given leaves so they can spend these epidemic days with their families.”
Update @16:40 local time: Iran International reports some hospitals in Iran are recording COVID-19 patients as Tuberculosis or Pneumonia and if the patient dies, those would be the cause of death on their death certificates.
Update @16:30 local time: Bahrain reports its 9th case of COVID-19 coming from Iran.
Update @16:23 local time: A Turkish Airline flight from Tehran to Istanbul lands in Ankara because there was a suspected COVID-19 patient onboard. All 132 passengers aboard were examined.
Update @15:43 local time: Health Minister: “We urge people in the cities with Coronavirus to stay at home so we don’t have to implement quarantine. “
Somebody should ask him, please tell us which cities they are, first!
Those 34 include 16 in Qom, 9 in Tehran, 1 in Fars, 2 in Mazandaran, 2 in Gilan, 1 in Khorasan Razavi, 2 in Alborz, and 1 in Hormozgan. That means the virus has reached all 4 corners of the country, considering the unofficial stats.
The total “Official” confirmed patients are on this map:
Qom: 50 Tehran: 22 Gilan: 8 Markazi: 4 Alborz: 2 Hamedan: 1 Mazandaran: 3
Isfahan: 2 Fars: 1 Hormozgan: 1 Khorasan Razavi: 1
Total: 98
Dead: 15
Healed: 3
The problem has gotten out of hand and they can’t control it anymore, still lying about the scale of the disaster. The government have blocked Johns Hopkins website showing live updates of the cases around the world.
Harirchi, who dared Qom Rep over the number of dead in Qom, has also posted positive. He is the Deputy Health Minister. “I had fever yesterday….a few minutes ago my final test came back positive. I have isolated myself…. I promise you we will defeat Coronavirus in the next few weeks. I assure you…. This is a democratic virus, it can infect anybody and everybody, officials or not, poor or wealthy….”
According to a local source, masks and disinfectant solutions are scant. The government has arrested many people storing these. Today, the DEFENSE minister (yes, you read that right) ordered Defense Industries to manufacture more disinfectant solution! The source says, “Everybody is coughing on the street. There is no test kits, people are all frightened, angry at the government not being honest with them.”
The virus has reached prisons and is spreading like wild fire with nothing stopping it. The government is considering quarantining some of these cities but IRGC and some of the Ayatollahs don’t agree with this decision, including IRGC Intelligence Chief, Hossein Taeb who opposed quarantining Qom.
IR regime’s incompetence has caused the virus to reach Kuwait, announcing its 5th case, Iraq with 13, UAE with 2 and Bahrain with 1 confirmed COVID-19 patients.
Despite all these, Mahan Air, IRGC owned, is still running flights to China regularly. Mashhad University of Medical Sciences Head said: “700 clergy students from China who were studying in Qom are the reason for Coronavirus in Iran.”
In Ahvaz, SW Iran, a Corona patient was sent to a hospital not specialized in infectious diseases for a surgery! A nurse sent this video on social media.
Office manager of one of the grand Ayatollahs in Qom has become sick too. That Ayatollah and his family are under quarantine now.
World Health Organization (WHO) and other International organizations need to do something before this gets any worse than it already is. Transparent honest stat is the least we could ask from this government.