Hassan Rouhani: We Will Be Dealing with Coronavirus for at Least Another One or Two Years
Hassan Rouhani, President of Iran, said on Monday, October 19, during a meeting with health ministry officials that Iran will be dealing with coronavirus for at least another year, and that the main effort against it involves changing lifestyle habits.
Rouhani said: “Based on a pessimistic outlook, we will be dealing with this disease for at least another year. For now, we are setting our baseline that we will face this problem this year and possibly next year, and the main effort against it is changing our lifestyle.”
He cited convincing the public to observe health protocols as the most important solution, and in this regard cited the leader of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as an example, saying that he considers himself “bound by the decisions of the national headquarters.”
Since the outbreak of coronavirus in Iran, Ayatollah Khamenei, the leader of the Islamic Republic, has canceled all public meetings as well as his annual religious programs and has conducted his rare speeches virtually.
In another part of his remarks regarding fines for not wearing masks, the Iranian president said that the government “has no funds” and stated: “All people must accept that today’s conditions in the country are different from yesterday, and these conditions may continue for months.”
He also described the increase in coronavirus deaths as a “warning alarm” and said: “People should not be afraid of high infection numbers, but if our deaths increase, this is a sign of a warning alarm.”
National coronavirus task force officials have in recent days attempted to contain the spread of coronavirus in Iran by implementing certain social restrictions, imposing fines on non-compliant citizens, and banning certain cultural, sports, and religious activities, but the latest statistics on infections and deaths show that these policies have failed.
In the latest official figures, the spokesman of Iran’s Health Ministry announced today that 337 people died from coronavirus in the past 24 hours, which is the highest daily death toll from coronavirus in the past 9 months.
Rouhani also emphasized the need to expand and increase testing to stop the chain of infection and said: “For every person infected, we should call their family, close friends, and those who were with them and immediately quarantine them.”
Conducting widespread tests and tracing chains of infection requires technical facilities and the use of more human resources in the health and medical sector. In this regard, Rouhani did not explain the implementation method of this directive, but said regarding coronavirus diagnostic test kits: “There is no restriction and the number of 25,000 daily tests should reach 40,000 daily tests.”
The president of the Islamic Republic of Iran also announced a fine of 200,000 tomans for those who do not comply with quarantine, but added: “These regulations that are imposed must be implemented and operational, otherwise if they remain on paper, progress will not be made and we will not reach results.”
According to official statistics from Iran’s Health Ministry, the total number of COVID-19 victims in Iran as of October 19 has reached 30,712 people, while recently Iraj Harirchi, Deputy Health Minister, had said that the actual figures for coronavirus deaths are up to 2.2 times higher than official figures.
Source: Radio Farda
