Four million Iranian households receive coronavirus "supplementary loans"
Four million Iranian households will receive a “supplementary loan” of one million tomans in addition to the loan paid to all subsidy recipients. This loan will be paid to support vulnerable groups during the coronavirus crisis, and its installment will be deducted from the monthly subsidy.
The spokesperson for the "Corona Support Facilities" announced that, according to the Cabinet resolution, four million households that have been identified as vulnerable groups can apply for a supplementary loan of one million tomans if they wish.
Hossein Mirzaei told IRNA on Thursday, July 9, that this loan is in addition to the one million toman loan that has been deposited into the accounts of all subsidy recipients.
According to the report, Mirzaei expressed ignorance about the timing of the supplementary loan payment and said: "Those covered by this plan are street vendors, pickup truck drivers, and construction workers, whose information has been collected by the Ministry of Interior and the Social Security Organization."
He added that the supplementary loan also includes families of five or more people, and that information on these families has been received from the Subsidies Targeting Organization.
Hassan Rouhani's government recently decided to provide a one million toman loan to all Iranian subsidy-receiving families to compensate for the economic losses caused by the coronavirus outbreak and deduct the installments from the monthly subsidy over 30 months.
"Supportive loan", subsidy advance
Thus, this “support loan” is a kind of subsidy advance. According to official statistics, 23 million households in Iran receive subsidies, and as of last month, a little over 21 million households had applied for a one million toman loan.
According to Mirzaei, the installment for a one million toman loan is 35,100 tomans per month, which will be deducted from the 10th of July simultaneously with the payment of this month's subsidy. With this calculation, a single-person household will receive only 10,400 tomans in subsidy from July to the next two and a half years, instead of the 45,500 tomans subsidy.
The arrival of the coronavirus and the spread of COVID-19 in Iran were officially confirmed on the last day of February last year. After a long period of double digits, the daily number of COVID-19 victims in Iran has reached three digits since the last week of June, and this trend continues.
A new record in the number of daily victims
The Ministry of Health spokesperson announced in his latest press conference that 221 people have died from the coronavirus in the 24 hours ending at noon on Thursday, July 9. The highest number of coronavirus victims in a single day so far was on Tuesday, with 200 deaths.
According to Sima Sadat Lari, 2,079 new cases of COVID-19 have been identified in Iran in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of infected people in the country to 250,458. The total number of victims has also reached 12,305.
The spokesperson for the Ministry of Health says that the situation in different regions of Iran regarding the spread of the coronavirus has not changed much in recent days, and 19 provinces are still in red and alert status.
19 provinces in red and alert status
He noted that currently the provinces of Khuzestan, Hormozgan, Bushehr, Kermanshah, Kurdistan, Ilam, West and East Azerbaijan, and Khorasan Razavi are in red status, and the provinces of Tehran, Isfahan, Mazandaran, Golestan, Alborz, Kerman, Yazd, Sistan and Baluchestan, Hamedan, and Ardabil are in alert status.
Health Minister Saeed Namaki, referring to the fact that the number of victims had recently decreased to 30 per day, expressed regret that many citizens did not take the warnings about observing health guidelines seriously. A day later, he acknowledged that the government, given the reports from security agencies about the dire living conditions of the people and the possibility of riots and riots, was forced to take such a step despite the risks of lifting restrictions, which resulted in a resurgence of the coronavirus wave in the country.
Namaki says a "new wave" of COVID-19, which has emerged "especially in very important provinces, especially border provinces," is the "reward" for not taking health warnings and recommendations seriously.
The Minister of Health said: "Unfortunately, there were trips and during those trips we carried the virus bomb with us and infected others and ourselves." Many observers believe that the early lifting of restrictions and the lack of infrastructure necessary to maintain social distancing played a significant role in the re-spread of the coronavirus.
It is said that in a densely populated city like Tehran, congestion on the metro and other public transportation has been very effective in putting the city on alert. Saeed Namaki says that he has some ideas about issues such as how to strengthen the urban transportation fleet, which he raises not from public platforms, but in letters to officials.
Source: DW
