More than ten thousand Iranian medical staff have been infected with the coronavirus

An Iranian Health Ministry official said on Thursday, June 1, that more than 10,000 healthcare workers in the country have been infected with the coronavirus.

Qasem Janbabaei, Deputy Minister of Health of the Iranian Ministry of Health, who spoke at a ceremony celebrating the efforts of Iranian doctors and nurses, considered this rate of their infection with the coronavirus a sign of the dedication of the country's medical staff.

According to the latest official statistics from Iran, COVID-19 has claimed 7,249 lives in the country so far. The total number of infected people has been announced at 129,341. However, other reports indicate that the number of infected and dead is much higher than these figures.

Last month, Iran's Ministry of Health reported that more than 100 doctors and nurses in the country had died from the coronavirus.

"Identification of 2,392 new patients"

On Thursday, the spokesman for the Iranian Ministry of Health also announced the identification of 2,392 new coronavirus patients in the country in the past 24 hours.

Kianoush Jahanpour said that among the new cases, 351 were hospitalized and 2,041 were outpatients and people who had come into contact with infected people were identified, bringing the total number of Covid-19 patients in the country to 129,341.

Mr. Jahanpour continued that over the past 24 hours, 66 COVID-19 patients lost their lives, bringing the total number of deaths from the disease in the country to 7,249.

According to him, so far, 100,564 patients have recovered and been discharged, and 2,655 patients with Covid-19 are under observation in severe condition.

The spokesperson for the Ministry of Health stated: "During the past 24 hours, zero deaths have been reported in 12 provinces and one death in 6 provinces."

Critics say that the Islamic Republic's authorities' cover-up of the coronavirus outbreak in the religious province of Qom has allowed the disease to spread throughout the country. Meanwhile, there remains serious doubt about the official death toll.

For months now, most businesses have been shut down due to this disease, and Iranian citizens have been facing many mental and economic problems.

"It was too early to reduce social distancing"

A day earlier, Mohammad Kakavand, head of the Borujerd Health and Treatment Network, told reporters that "the situation in Borujerd is red and in a state of alert."

He stated: "The number of infected and hospitalized people has increased, and contrary to what the general public thinks, the virus has weakened. It has not weakened at all, and it continues to infect with its own power and even causes deaths."

The head of the Boroujerd Health and Treatment Network said that "the main reason is the lack of social distancing, which was supposed to be smart."

On the same day, Minoo Mahrez, another Health Ministry official who is a member of the National Committee to Combat Corona, also told ISNA that "in our opinion, it was still too early to reduce physical distancing."

He emphasized: "Experiences from various countries have shown that if physical distancing is relaxed, cases of infection will rise again."

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

Source: Radio Farda