Iran's coronavirus death toll continues to rise in triple digits amid shortages "crisis"

On Tuesday, the spokesman for the Iranian Ministry of Health announced the identification of 2,563 patients infected with the coronavirus and the death of 115 more people due to the coronavirus.

This is the third consecutive day that the number of coronavirus victims in Iran has reached three digits after a long time.

Previously, Ministry of Health officials had warned that the increase in the number of infections in the country would lead to an increase in the number of victims.

Speaking on the Khabar TV network on Tuesday, June 17, Sima Lari announced that the official number of infected and dead in Iran, including the cases and deaths in the past 24 hours, is 192,439 and 9,065, respectively.

According to him, 2,815 people infected with the coronavirus in Iran are currently under intensive care, and the number of recovered people has reached 152,675.

As announced by the spokesman for the Iranian Ministry of Health, the situation in the provinces of Khuzestan, East and West Azerbaijan, Khorasan Razavi, Lorestan, Kermanshah, Golestan, Hormozgan, Kurdistan, and Sistan and Baluchestan is still "red."

The announcement that the number of coronavirus victims in Iran has reached three digits again comes at a time when, according to Iraj Harirchi, Deputy Minister of Health of Iran, the number of Iranian deaths in the war between Iraq and Iran was only 66 per day, but currently, coronavirus is claiming the lives of at least a hundred people in the country every day.

Meanwhile, the Nursing System Organization announced on Tuesday that two "simultaneous crises," namely the shortage of nurses and the coronavirus epidemic, are threatening people's health.

According to IRNA, in a letter sent by this organization to Hassan Rouhani, it was stated that due to the very close contact of nurses with patients infected with the coronavirus, as of June 17, 2020, 7,400 nurses have been definitely infected with the coronavirus and 18 have died.

The Nursing System Organization has strongly criticized the treatment of nurses during this period, noting that "65 to 68 thousand nurses have directly served only coronavirus patients during these four months."

As stated in the letter, "many medical universities have forced nurses to work overtime above the legal limit" and their wages have been paid with a "7 to 17 month delay."

The organization has sharply criticized the fact that, despite the allocation of "significant resources" from the National Reserve Fund to compensate for losses caused by the coronavirus, payments (under the title of coronavirus rights) of 18,000 Tomans, 28,000 Tomans, and 100,000-150,000 Tomans are being made to nurses.

The Nursing System Organization has emphasized that since the outbreak of the coronavirus, the "worst incident" has been the treatment of volunteer nurses in the northern provinces, including Gilan and Mazandaran, and almost the entire country.

The organization writes in its explanation: "Despite the promise of priority hiring and one-year employment for [these nurses], after just two months of activity, they were offered a mandatory 89-day hourly contract without being paid their legal monthly salaries and benefits, and the payment of any legal salaries and benefits was made conditional on signing this contract."

The letter introduces nurses as "the people most involved in the coronavirus issue and the closest person to the coronavirus patient" and calls for the hiring of nurses, payment of arrears, and reform of the payment system.

Source: Radio Farda