More than 10,000 Iranian Healthcare Workers Infected with Coronavirus

An Iranian Ministry of Health official said on Thursday, June 21st, that more than 10,000 healthcare sector employees in the country have been infected with the coronavirus.

Ghasem Janbabayee, Deputy Minister of Treatment at Iran’s Ministry of Health, speaking at a ceremony honoring the efforts of Iranian doctors and nurses, considered this rate of infection among healthcare workers as a sign of the dedication of the country’s medical personnel.

According to Iran’s latest official figures, COVID-19 has claimed the lives of 7,249 people in the country. The total number of confirmed cases has been reported as 129,341. However, other reports suggest that the number of infected and deceased is significantly higher than these figures.

Last month, Iran’s Ministry of Health reported that more than 100 doctors and nurses in the country died as a result of coronavirus infection.

“Identification of 2,392 New Patients”

On Thursday, Iran’s Health Ministry spokesman also announced the identification of 2,392 new coronavirus patients in the country over the past 24 hours.

Kianush Jahanpur said that among the new cases, 351 were admitted to hospitals and 2,041 were outpatient cases, identified from people who had contact with confirmed patients, bringing the total number of COVID-19 patients in the country to 129,341.

Mr. Jahanpur added that over the past 24 hours, 66 COVID-19 patients died, and the total death toll from the disease in the country reached 7,249.

According to him, so far 100,564 patients have recovered and been discharged, and 2,655 COVID-19 patients are under intensive care in critical condition.

The Health Ministry spokesman stated: Over the past 24 hours, zero deaths were reported in 12 provinces, and one death was reported in 6 provinces.

Critics say that the concealment by Islamic Republic officials regarding the outbreak of coronavirus in the religious city of Qom caused the disease to spread throughout the country. Meanwhile, serious doubts remain about the official statistics of disease fatalities.

Currently, for months, much of the business sector has been shut down due to this disease, and many psychological and economic problems have burdened Iranian citizens.

“It Was Too Early to Reduce Distancing”

One day before this, Mohammad Kakavand, head of the Borujerd Health and Treatment Network, told reporters that “Borujerd’s situation is red and in a warning state.”

He emphasized: “The number of infected and hospitalized has increased, and contrary to what ordinary people think, the virus has not weakened at all and continues to infect with its full force, and there are even deaths.”

The head of the Borujerd Health and Treatment Network said that “the main reason is the failure to maintain social distancing, which was supposed to be done intelligently.”

On the same day, Minoo Mohrez, another Health Ministry official who is a member of the National Corona Fighting Committee, also told ISNA news agency that “in our view, it was still too early to reduce physical distancing.”

She emphasized: “The experiences of different countries have shown that if physical distancing is reduced, cases will rise again.”

According to Ms. Mohrez, “In some provinces such as Lorestan and Khuzestan, cases have increased significantly, but in Tehran the number of visits has decreased and currently we do not have that high peak.”

Source: Radio Farda