Iran's official coronavirus figures continue to rise; full presence of office staff "still mandatory"

While the official statistics on Tuesday showed that the number of people infected with the coronavirus in Iran was 35,000, the statistics on Wednesday, February 13, show that 38,160 Iranian citizens have been infected with the virus over the past 24 hours.

The official number of coronavirus deaths on Wednesday was announced at 59, an increase from 50 the previous day.

The official coronavirus statistics are announced daily by the Iranian Ministry of Health, while officials from the Medical System Organization have previously announced the actual statistics to be several times higher.

Ebrahim Qaderi, head of the surveillance department of the Center for Communicable Disease Management at the Iranian Ministry of Health, said on Tuesday, February 12, that the number of patients who are infected with the coronavirus but "are not reported is more than five times the number that are currently diagnosed."

According to the Health Ministry official, the actual number of people infected with the coronavirus on Wednesday should be estimated at at least 190,000.

Meanwhile, Taghi Riahi, head of Tehran's Rasoul Akram Hospital, pointed out that the number of people hospitalized with coronavirus has increased, saying that in early January of this year, "after two years, the ICU wards were closed for coronavirus patients," but due to the increase in the number of critically ill patients, these wards have been reopened.

ISNA news agency wrote on Wednesday that, despite the warnings, no specific restrictions have been imposed, especially on the presence of employees, to control the current situation.

The report continues: "While inquiries from some organizations show that in recent times, due to the rapid spread of Emicron, there has been a significant number of employee infections, organizations have not yet implemented teleworking and full attendance is mandatory. The reason why organizations have not implemented teleworking is also the lack of official notification from the government or relevant organizations."

Other reports say that schools in Iran have finally become non-attendance-based, "but only halfway."

ISNA writes that the governor of Tehran announced that elementary schools will be closed for at least a week and kindergartens in the province will be closed for a week, but the first and second grades of high school will still be active in person.

Currently, 42 cities in Iran are in red, 142 cities in orange, 230 cities in yellow, and 34 cities in blue. Officials are talking about "the continued upward trend of coronavirus infections in the sixth peak" and Iran being "in the escalating epidemic phase."

In a highly confidential document that was exclusively published by Radio Farda on February 12, 2021, an official named "Mohammadi" from the Social Affairs Department of the Revolutionary Guards' Intelligence Organization referred to the issue of coronavirus vaccination in the country in a recent meeting and said: "About seven thousand coronavirus vaccination stations were set up, and health network personnel worked overtime to administer the vaccines. These individuals were not paid for their overtime work, which could lead to civil disobedience in administering the third dose."

Source: Radio Farda