Zali: Executive officials still do not take the deadly nature of Corona and quarantine seriously

The head of the coronavirus management operations in Greater Tehran criticized the fact that executive officials and the public are not taking the deadly nature of the coronavirus and the quarantine warning seriously. According to Zali, the contradictions in decisions and the lack of transparency have led to people's distrust.

While Hassan Rouhani has clearly stated his opposition to any type of quarantine, Alireza Zali, the operational head of the Corona Management Headquarters in Greater Tehran, considered the comments of the country's "executive and administrative officials" as a sign that they have not taken the deadly nature of the coronavirus seriously.

In an interview with ISNA on March 16, Mr. Zali said that people's inattention to staying at home is the result of contradictions in decision-making, the failure to implement many of the approvals of the Tehran Metropolitan Headquarters, the lack of readiness for administrative requirements, and the inattention of officials and, of course, the people themselves.

Acknowledging that Iran’s programs to properly inform and convey important and sensitive concepts of COVID-19 to the public and officials have not been successful, he emphasized that “we must speak honestly with the public about epidemics.” He implicitly defended home quarantine, calling it one of the most important ways to prevent the coronavirus.

President Hassan Rouhani yesterday announced his opposition to imposing any kind of quarantine, saying: "We do not have anything called quarantine. The rumor that some stores and businesses in Tehran or some cities are quarantined does not exist at all. There is no quarantine today, nor during Nowruz, nor before or after it, and everyone is free to do their business and activities."

According to the latest official statistics from the Ministry of Health, 1,053 new COVID-19 patients have been identified in cities across the country since yesterday afternoon. This brings the total number of people infected with the disease across Iran to 14,991.

Of the newly identified patients, 129 people lost their lives, bringing the total number of deaths from COVID-19 in the country to 853 as of today (March 16, 2019).

"Unnecessary concealments"

The Ministry of Health's statistics are being published daily, while some members of parliament have been saying for the past three weeks that the death toll from the coronavirus in Qom and Gilan is higher than the Ministry of Health's figures. They accuse the government of not sharing the real statistics with the public in a transparent and honest manner.

Zali, the commander of the Corona management operation in the Tehran metropolis, today implicitly referred to this lack of transparency on the part of the authorities, saying that "people should not be overly frightened or worried, and people should not be kept away from the facts by concealing the facts, and in fact, by unnecessary concealment."

Criticism of contradictions

The failure to implement many of the decisions of the headquarters to combat the coronavirus in the metropolis of Tehran and the wandering of employees and workers is another part of Mr. Zali's criticism, which has caused people to face dual and "contradictory" decisions by officials and, according to him, "public trust in the words of officials is fading."

According to the Fararo website, the president of Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences said that one of the people's complaints is that if they have to stay home, what will happen to them with the restrictive administrative regulations at their workplace?

According to Zali, the results of an opinion poll showed that people are complaining about "how they can stay home" and follow coronavirus prevention programs when offices are not closed and they have to be at their workplaces.

The commander of the Corona Management Operations in the Tehran Metropolitan Area also confirmed that some of the Corona prevention and response decisions have not been implemented in Tehran Province, and pointed out that the lives of employees in 15 job groups, including female heads of households, are at risk. They were supposed to be subject to administrative exemptions, but are still forced to go to their workplaces in severe pollution conditions.

Officials don't give leave.

Citing public contacts, he said that "officials in offices do not agree to sick leave. Many officials in offices based in Tehran told their employees that we will not give you leave and you must work."

Zali considered staying at home to require the provision of requirements that are not yet available in metropolises like Tehran, which has caused people to take to the streets to go to work; going back and forth helps the coronavirus pandemic and becomes an excuse for the virus to continue claiming victims at least until the end of spring 2020.

Source: DW