Corona in Iran; Tehran hospitals are full, "Revival" ceremony to be held

As the coronavirus pandemic situation in Iran continues to worsen, it was announced on Monday, April 13, that for the first time, all cities in Tehran province have been placed in red status and the capacity of hospital beds in Tehran province has also been completed.

On the same day, while the spokesperson for the Coronavirus Response Headquarters said that if the new restrictions are not observed, "we should expect four-digit deaths," Iran's Health Minister announced that the "Night of Power" ceremony could be held in all cities.

According to the latest official statistics announced by the Ministry of Health, 274 more patients have fallen victim to the coronavirus in the past 24 hours and 23,311 new patients have been identified.

According to these statistics, 64,764 people have died from coronavirus in Iran so far, and the total number of infected people has reached more than two million and 90 thousand.

Previously, some official domestic sources, such as the Iranian Medical System Organization, have estimated the actual number of victims and patients with coronavirus in Iran to be three to four times the official figures of the Ministry of Health.

Revival ceremonies "will be held in all cities"

Despite this news and the repeated emphasis by officials in recent days on the rapid worsening of the coronavirus outbreak in Iran, Health Minister Saeed Namaki wrote in a letter to the Deputy Health Minister on Monday that the revival ceremony could be held "like last year in all cities."

He requested that the ceremony be held in cities "in an appropriate atmosphere" and "for a maximum of two hours."

Saeed Namaki acknowledged that during the past Friday prayers and religious ceremonies last year, “extremist groups outside the management circle… committed acts that were inconsistent with the guidelines.”

Regarding the failure to comply with the coronavirus guidelines during religious ceremonies, which he himself mentioned, he added that this issue "became fodder for propaganda by a group abroad so that they could cowardly attack the pure feelings of religious people."

Iran's Health Minister has announced that "revival nights" ceremonies are permitted in all Iranian cities, while continuing his remarks on Monday, he said that "the holding of Eid al-Fitr ceremonies in some regions of the country last year led to the formation of a new wave in those provinces, and failure to prevent this phenomenon during the upcoming Eid al-Fitr could lead to a mutated virus of even greater proportions."

"We should expect four-digit deaths"

Meanwhile, on Monday, Alireza Raisi, spokesman for the Coronavirus Response Headquarters, said that the official number of coronavirus victims being announced now is related to "Nowruz shopping before the start of the new year" and that if the new restrictions are not observed, "we should expect four-digit deaths."

While warning about the increase in daily coronavirus deaths to four figures or a thousand people per day, the official said that the legal restrictions announced in some provinces are not being implemented well.

In recent days, the way the Coronavirus Task Force has managed the Nowruz holiday has faced widespread criticism, and some Health Ministry officials, without naming the members of the task force, say that some people's opposition to imposing widespread restrictions on the Nowruz holiday has caused the spread of the coronavirus in Iran to spiral out of control.

At the same time, Alireza Zali, the operational commander of the Tehran Province Coronavirus Response Headquarters, said on Monday that "speculations show that the coming week will be very worrying," adding that "for the first time, all cities in Tehran Province have been placed in red status."

He explained that "there is undoubtedly a significant difference between the fourth wave of coronavirus and the third and second waves. The rate of growth of the waves of the disease has occurred at a very fast rate that is not comparable to the second and third waves and has quadrupled."

Tehran's hospitals are running out of space.

Tehran Governor Anoushirvan Mohseni Bandpay said on Monday evening at the second meeting of the Tehran Province Coronavirus Command Headquarters: "The capacity for coronavirus patients in Tehran Province's hospitals is 6,691, and this capacity has been filled."

He also declared the spread of the coronavirus in Tehran province to be "very rapid" and said about the province's new statistics that "this statistic is very worrying compared to March."

Regarding the vaccination process, Mohseni Bandpay also said that Tehran province's quota is low in proportion to its population and "a fair system is to provide a vaccine quota in proportion to the population."

"We consider the Minister of Health to be responsible for the deaths of nurses"

On Monday, the Secretary General of the Iranian Nursing Home, in an interview with the "Rokna" news site, referred to the deaths of seven nursing staff members in less than a month across the country and emphasized that "we consider the Minister of Health personally responsible for the deaths of these nurses and we believe that even if these families do not complain to the Minister, he should still be tried."

Mohammad Reza Sharifi Moghadam explained: "Because the vaccination of medical personnel in Iran has begun for more than two months now, the process of supplying and distributing these vaccines has been so inadequate that a large portion of medical personnel across the country have not yet received the coronavirus vaccine."

The Secretary General of the Iranian Nursing Home reported on the failure to prioritize nurses for vaccination, the unfair distribution of "the small amount of vaccine that has entered the country," and "violations by some private hospitals in Tehran in the distribution of the coronavirus vaccine."

The Iranian Ministry of Health has not yet provided new statistics on the number of coronavirus vaccine recipients who are currently members of the medical system, but statistics from last week show that only 161,000 people in Iran have received the vaccine.

The news site Tejarat News has reported that brokers in Tehran are promising to provide a coronavirus vaccine in exchange for 50 to 60 million tomans.

Source: Radio Farda