Posted on: Mon 21-09-2020

In a sweeping proclamation on Friday, September 18, one of Iran’s most senior health officials pronounced the entire country in a state of “red alert” for the spread of coronavirus. Iran appears to be the first country in the world now in the throes of a “third wave”.

The official death toll from Covid-19 in Iran has now passed 24,000. This figure only covers those that tested positive for coronavirus under medical supervision and the real death toll is likely to be many times more. Now that the nationwide university entrance exams, ceremonies to mark the martyrdom of Imam Hossein, religious holidays and reopenings of schools and universities are behind us, predictions about a new surge of coronavirus infections and fatalities with the arrival of the autumn have begun to come true.

“The entire country is in a red state of alert,” said first deputy health minister Iraj Harirchi in a TV interview on Friday. The “orange” and “yellow” warning categories, he said, were defunct and no longer meant anything, and if the current trend continues the number of recorded Covid-19 fatalities in Iran could reach 45,000.

The next day, at a meeting of the National Coronavirus Taskforce, President Rouhani yet again defended all actions taken by his administration in fighting the epidemic and instead turned on his critics. “In the time of coronavirus,” he said, “we must discard false dichotomies such as ‘health vs. making a living’, ‘health vs. religious devotion’, ‘health vs. social activities’ and ‘health vs. education’. We must consider these dualities all together. We must not think that if a child goes to school he’ll get infected, but not if he plays in the alley. Or if a young person goes to high school he’ll get infected, but not if he participates in a family party. This Covid-19 does not belong to any specific place or gathering, but is everywhere.”

Rouhani also warned that the coming autumn might bring new diseases to Iran. “In some of neighboring countries pneumonia-like diseases have been observed that are even more dangerous than Covid-19,” he said, “and because these countries are our neighbors, there is the possibility these diseases will get into Iran. Therefore, we must take precautions.” Rouhani gave no specific information on these mysterious maladies or what they were supposed to be.

Arbaeen – which marks the 40th and final day of mourning for Imam Hossein – falls this year on October 8. Traditionally on this day, thousands of Shia pilgrims travel to Karbala in Iraq to pray at his shrine. But this year the Iraqi government has banned foreign pilgrims to protect against Covid-19 transmission.

Despite the ban, in the past 24 hours numerous videos have surfaced online showing Iranian pilgrims traveling towards Iraq. Some of them show clashes erupting between the travelers and guards at the Shalamcheh border crossing with Iraq. These videos indicate that some pilgrims did succeed in breaking through the checkpoint and entering Iraq.

Hossein Zolfaghari, head of Iran’s Arba’een Organizing Headquarters, warned would-be pilgrims that they should not listen to rumors and must not move towards the border with Iraq. He reminded them that Iraq has officially announced that it will not allow foreign pilgrims into the country.

The past few weeks have been riven with confusion over whether or not Iran is equipped to deal with winter flu on top of coronavirus. On September 16, health minister Saeed Namaki said the flu vaccine had not even been purchased yet because the channel for transferring the cash to foreign providers was blocked by sanctions.

But on September 19, Mohammad Reza Shanehsaz, the president of Iran’s Food and Drug Administration, claimed that 14 million doses of flu vaccine will indeed be made available to Iranians and their distribution is due to start on September 22. Approximately two million doses will initially be given to health centers to inoculate the elderly as well as high-risk groups such as expecting mothers, transplant patients and patients suffering from heart and pulmonary diseases.

It appears that by prioritizing certain groups for vaccination, Iranian officials are trying to buy time until they can solve their banking problems and import a full 14 million doses. This issue was confirmed by Ali Asghar Bagherzadeh, a senior member of the parliament’s Health Committee.

Bagherzadeh said around €22 million had been allocated for importing the flu vaccine and “our friends at the Food and Drug Administration have informed us that this money, in hard currency, is now in an account in Turkey, ready to be transferred to the makers of the vaccine – but because of the sanctions, they have not been able to do so.”

Meanwhile Saeed Namaki made a startling announcement regarding Iran’s procurement of a coronavirus vaccine: a problem not yet solved anywhere in the world. This week Namaki claimed that Iran would shortly be importing 20 million doses of a coronavirus vaccine from India. “We are going to buy 20 million doses of coronavirus vaccine from an Indian company owned by an Iranian Zoroastrian,” he said. “This company has already received prepaid orders for 100 million doses from the US but it has received permission to sell 20 percent of its product to other countries. This company has promised us that we will get the vaccine at a reasonable price.”

Provinces Round-up

In his televised interview, Iraj Harirchi described the situation in the cities of Qom and Tabriz as “explosive”. “In Tabriz,” he reported, “we have gone from fewer than 40 hospitalizations to 160 per day and, in Qom, the number of daily hospitalizations has gone from 19 to 160.”

With the death of another six Covid-19 patients in the past 24 hours, the coronavirus death toll in Alborz province alone has reached 1,063, reported Dr. Mohammad Fathi, president of Alborz University of Medical Sciences. “From yesterday until today, 84 patients with Covid-19 symptoms have been hospitalized in the province’s treatment centers,” he said. “Currently, 519 patients including confirmed and suspected cases are hospitalized in Alborz. Of this number, 227 have been confirmed cases as of now.”

One-third of the medical staff at Imam Reza Hospital in Mashhad have been infected with coronavirus, reported Dr. Alireza Sedaghat, head of the hospital’s ICU. “We lack fresh human resources and new equipment to deal with the third wave,” he said. “Medical staff are exhausted because of the pressure of work and there is no possibility of replacing them. And because of the economic situation and the sanctions, we cannot have new equipment, and this issue increases the danger.”

Dr. Sedaghat also warned that the reopening of Imam Reza Shrine in Mashhad would be dangerous. “We had a meeting at the university,” he said, “ and we said if the shrine is reopened, more travelers would come to Mashhad, and even if hostels house just a limited number of travelers, the city will be more crowded and these travelers will come into contact with others. You can see that how one decision could affect everything.”

In her daily briefing for September 19, health ministry spokeswoman Dr. Sima Sadat Lari announced the official coronavirus statistics for the past 24 hours:

Source: independent

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