Coronavirus: Aviation Organization Denies Entry of Passenger from Britain to Iran, 82 More Patients Die in 24 Hours
A day after Iran’s Health Minister announced that a traveler from Britain brought the “first case” of mutated coronavirus to the country, the national aviation organization denied the claim.
Saeid Namaki, Iran’s Health Minister, said on Tuesday, December 16, that the “first case” of mutated coronavirus was identified in one of Iran’s citizens who had traveled from Britain to Iran and is currently hospitalized in a private hospital.
Mr. Namaki made the announcement after twice previously denying the entry of this virus into the country.
However, following his remarks, severe criticism emerged on social media regarding the lack of proper oversight of flights and passenger entry into Iran.
Now Abolqasem Jalali, Deputy for Aviation and International Affairs of the Civil Aviation Organization, told ISNA: “The entry of the English coronavirus variant to Iran has nothing to do with airlines and aviation companies.”
Mr. Jalali emphasized: “We immediately banned flights from England from the day the Ministry of Health, Treatment and Medical Education announced it, and no passengers have been allowed entry to the country since that day.”
Meanwhile, Iran’s Health Ministry announced Wednesday that continuing the downward trend of deaths from coronavirus in Iran following the implementation of restrictions, 82 more people died from this virus in the past 24 hours.
Sima Lari, spokesperson for the Health Ministry, announced that with the addition of these individuals, the death toll from this disease in Iran reached 55,830 people.
According to her, in the past 24 hours, 6,283 new cases of COVID-19 were identified in Iran and 603 of them were admitted to treatment centers across the country.
Ms. Lari also reported the government statistics of COVID-19 patients in Iran as 1,261,903 people.
Based on this report, currently 4,780 coronavirus patients in Iran are under care in severe condition of the disease.
Officials of Iran’s Health Ministry provide media with daily statistics on coronavirus cases and deaths, but the accuracy of these figures has been repeatedly questioned by independent international organizations and several domestic officials.
Source: Radio Farda
