Rasht Representative: Official Death toll from Coronavirus Looks Like a Joke

Rasht's representative, strongly criticizing the authorities' concealment in announcing the real number of victims of the coronavirus, said that the official statistics are more like a joke. The situation in Gilan is very serious. In Rasht, even the corridors of hospitals are full of people infected with the coronavirus.

No one knows the exact number of people infected and killed by the disease. But the Rasht representative in the Iranian parliament says: “Based on the evidence, clues, and information that we have received, the number of people affected and killed by this disease is higher than the number that is being announced.” In recent days, the Islamic Republic’s officials’ concealment of the extent of the spread of the coronavirus has been repeatedly criticized in the media inside and outside Iran. This has itself fueled the further spread of the disease.

The bitter gap between official statistics and real statistics

Referring to the official statistics of about 40 deaths from the coronavirus in Iran, Gholamali Jafarzadeh considered this statistic "something like a joke" and told "Asr Iran" that "the situation in Gilan is much worse than in Qom and even other parts of Iran."

The Rasht representative has reported that the situation in Gilan province, especially Rasht, is more critical than in other parts of Iran. According to Gholamali Jafarzadeh, the severity of this crisis is so great that he has considered the coronavirus “to the level of a war.” The Rasht representative said that “all hospitals in Rasht are full of suspected coronavirus patients.” Another worrying point is that the medical staff in Gilan hospitals are facing a severe shortage of basic facilities.

According to him, doctors and nurses in Rasht hospitals do not even have access to a standard mask. The hospitals are full and patients have no way to receive treatment.

Full hospitals, empty hands of nurses and doctors

The Rasht representative gives a picture of the situation in Rasht and says: "The situation is such that currently, on the door of Razi Hospital (which was intended as the main center for accepting Corona patients in Gilan), they have written that they are not accepting new patients because the capacity is full."

In addition to Razi Hospital, other hospitals, such as 17 Shahrivar, a children's hospital, are also suffering from a severe shortage of health facilities to combat the spread of the coronavirus. He said: "Today I learned about the shortage of masks for the staff of this hospital and the concerns that the families of the treatment department and the families of the children hospitalized at 17 Shahrivar have."

According to him, in the midst of this shortage, even the establishment of a field hospital is being resisted. Gholamali Jafarzadeh has asked why there is resistance to the establishment of a field hospital in Rasht?

Cemeteries for burying coronavirus victims or its further spread?

Another worrying issue that the Rasht representative mentioned is the unsanitary burial of people who have died from COVID-19. He said: “According to reports from village heads and village council members, a number of people in Gilan villages with symptoms similar to COVID-19 have died during this period and were buried without their cause of death being recorded.”

This is while unsanitary burials in village cemeteries can, according to the Rasht representative, be a factor in the further spread of the disease, "because in some villages in Gilan, cemeteries are located near residential areas, and burying people without following the standards and protocols of the World Health Organization and the Ministry of Health can severely affect the health and lives of people in these areas."

Ignorant people and irresponsible officials

The government's cover-up has had other dangerous consequences. Groups of people, oblivious to the danger of the coronavirus, have taken advantage of school closures to go on vacation. The Rasht representative says that downplaying the coronavirus has caused 700,000 people to travel to Gilan. He believes that the way the authorities handled the situation "caused people not to take the issue seriously, and some of them even went on vacation, with only about 700,000 people traveling to Gilan in the past few days."

The situation will not return to normal in Iran or the world anytime soon. But Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has taken the liberty of telling the public that everything will be “normal” starting Saturday, March 1. Gholamali Jafarzadeh told Asr Iran: “Such statements show that perhaps the government has not yet properly grasped the depth of the disaster.”

He has pointed out the role of quarantine in preventing the spread of the coronavirus, a measure that is still not being taken seriously by the authorities of the Islamic Republic. The Rasht representative has spoken of the need for “city-to-city quarantine in Gilan” and has called for “travel from Rasht to Astana Ashrafiyeh or Astana to Lahijan to be banned in order to contain this crisis.”

Iran is the "most advanced" country in the fight against Corona!

The Rasht representative's harsh criticism of the government and those involved comes at a time when the Minister of Health claims that the Islamic Republic is "one of the leading countries in the Eastern Mediterranean region and for the first time in the world" in preventing and combating the spread of the coronavirus.

Saeed Namaki also said that the number of recoveries is increasing and that the Islamic Republic has taken the lead in preventing the spread of the coronavirus, rather than waiting for it to spread. The Minister of Health described his ministry's approach to controlling and treating the disease as follows:

"Instead of waiting for the virus to come to us, we will start preventing the disease. This plan will begin tomorrow with 300,000 medical and health teams." These teams are supposed to go to "every single home" and identify suspicious cases.

It is not clear what options will be given to potential patients after they are identified, as the Islamic Republic's health minister is among those who have criticized the Rouhani government's performance in providing facilities. He has also complained about the hoarding of "unfair" networks in the Islamic Republic.

Source: DW