Coronavirus: ‘One death every 7 minutes’ in Iran, secret distribution of imported pills to officials
While Iranian Health Ministry officials report that the third wave of coronavirus in Iran is more severe, with ‘one citizen dying every 7 minutes’ and describe a concerning situation in the capital, Mahmoud Sadeghi, representative of Tehran in the tenth parliament, reports the ‘secret’ allocation of imported pills from China to Islamic Republic officials.
Mahmoud Sadeghi, representative of Tehran in the tenth parliament, said on Sunday, October 6, in an interview with ILNA news agency: “At the end of the tenth parliament, 20,000 tablets of Favipiravir were secretly imported from China and a large number was spent on treating officials.”
He added: “These pills were supposed to be given to hospitals for clinical trials and manufacturing permits were to be granted, but unfortunately it was not clear what happened to them.”
Mr. Sadeghi, noting that “in my opinion, no country has such prioritization,” continued: “It is surprising that people’s representatives, and especially representatives whose slogans of justice-seeking have deafened the heavens, would want to distance themselves from the people in this way.”
On the same day, Iraj Harirchi, deputy minister of health, announced that “in the third wave of coronavirus, the number of infected and hospitalized patients has been reported to be much higher than in the first and second waves, to the extent that the names of Tehran and Qom provinces stand out in this regard.”
In an interview with the second channel of Islamic Republic state television, he continued: “The number of deaths in some provinces is unprecedented and much higher than previous quotas, and based on statistics from last week, on average one person dies from coronavirus every 7 minutes, which is not at all becoming of our country.”
Iraj Harirchi said that the one-week closure of schools and universities would be subject to extension, and the implementation of closures for shopkeepers and some offices would be possible at the discretion of the national coronavirus task force.
Mr. Harirchi described Tehran’s situation as “concerning,” and a day before him, Alireza Zali, head of the coronavirus task force in Tehran, said that Iran’s capital is in “a completely critical and dangerous situation” and must have one-week restrictions imposed.
In another statement, Nahid Khodakarmi, head of the health committee of Tehran City Council, reported 12,000 deaths in the capital due to coronavirus.
According to Farsnews Agency, he, while emphasizing that “the death toll from this disease continues to rise,” said: “The number of deaths throughout the day has reached 90 people.”
The possibility of school closures is announced while Majid Hedayat, deputy for educational planning and rehabilitation of the organization of exceptional education of the country, said on Sunday in an interview with ILNA news agency, that more than 40 percent of students with special needs do not have access to the internet education network, “Shad network.”
He explained that one group of these students has no internet access, one group has no mobile phones, and one group are low-ability students who cannot function in the virtual space.
Source: Radio Farda
