Increasing number of coronavirus victims in Iran, with contradictory statistics

The coronavirus is spreading rapidly in Iran. According to official statistics, 194 people have died across Iran so far, while a health ministry official said more than 200 people have died from the virus in Gilan alone.

On Sunday (March 9), on the 19th day of the coronavirus outbreak in Iran, the Iranian Ministry of Health released new statistics indicating the rapid growth of the disease.

According to Iranian news agencies, Dr. Kianoush Jahanpour, spokesman for the Ministry of Health, has announced the rapid spread of the epidemic in the past 24 hours. According to the latest official statistics, in just one day, 743 new cases of COVID-19 have been identified in the country based on laboratory results, bringing the total number of people infected with the disease to 6,566.

According to Dr. Jahanpour, in the past 24 hours, 49 new COVID-19 patients have died, bringing the total number of deaths from the coronavirus in the country to 194.

The spokesperson for the Ministry of Health expressed satisfaction that 2,134 patients with COVID-19 have recovered so far.

In a recent report by the Ministry of Health, the provinces of Tehran, Qom, Gilan, Isfahan, Alborz, and Mazandaran have recorded the most cases of coronavirus infection.

As most citizens have criticized and the mass media have pointed out, official statistics lack sufficient transparency and clarity.

The latest evidence of this chaos is the words of Mohammad Hossein Ghorbani, the representative of the Minister of Health in Gilan Province, who, at an extraordinary meeting of the Rasht City Council's Health Commission, estimated the number of infected people in Gilan Province to be between 800 and 900, while the Ministry of Health's Information Center announced the number of infected people in Gilan Province as 496.

According to a report by the Young Journalists Club affiliated with the Iranian Broadcasting Corporation, Mohammad Hossein Ghorbani has stated that the number of deaths in Gilan alone is "more than 200 people."

According to the results of a survey conducted between March 1 and 4 by the Tehran Municipality's Social and Cultural Studies Office and published in the Hamshahri newspaper, most Iranians are dissatisfied with the government's information provision.

According to the findings of this survey, about 63% of people do not have access to the health and medical items necessary to combat the virus, such as masks and disinfectants, because these items are not available in the market and are sold very expensively on the black market.

According to the same survey, most people criticize that people do not enjoy equal and fair access to health facilities and medical services.

The website of the Iranian Labor News Agency (ILNA) has reported on the precarious situation of more than three million Iranian women who are forced to work hard to earn a living. The report states: “Concerns about the health of women who work in informal employment are very serious.”