Health Ministry Flatters Leader Instead of Asking for Resources to Combat Epidemic

Iran’s health minister has written to the Supreme Leader, praising him in flattering, flowery language and showing appreciation for some of his less helpful statements about the coronavirus crisis at a time when the country is being battered by a second outbreak and resources to fight it are badly needed.

Saeed Namaki had the opportunity to ask the Leader about these resources and the introduction of policies that could help Iranian citizens through the current crisis. Instead, he promised the Leader that everybody in Iran would do everything they could to “bring back a smile” to his face. He indicated that this was the main (if not the only) concern people had to worry about.

As the Supreme Leader was being praised, Tehran officials put the blame squarely on the shoulders of President Hassan Rouhani. A member of the board of directors of Tehran City Council blamed the government for its mishandling of the crisis. With an average of more than 600 coronavirus hospitalizations and 70 fatalities per day, Tehran is now witnessing its second Covid-19 peak, announced Zahra Bahramnejad, also from Tehran City Council. 

Bahramnejad also said lack of foresight and failure to effectively carry out the policy of mandatory wearing of masks in crowded areas had made the crisis worse. According to her, every day around 75 percent of Tehran’s more than 10 million people leave home for work or to shop, and officials behave as though Iran is in a post-coronavirus situation. Even the smallest decisions are not allowed to be made at a local level, she said. 

Misleading Figures (Again)

Over the last few days, the health ministry’s spokeswoman has given distorted information regarding the coronavirus situation in individual provinces, and in some cases even completely omitted updates on particular badly-hit or at-risk provinces.

According to Sima Sadat Lari, on July 12 only four provinces — Khuzestan, Razavi Khorasan, Mazandaran and West Azerbaijan — were in a “red” or emergency state. She said the nine provinces of Tehran, Fars, Kerman, Alborz, Kohgiluyeh and Boyer Ahmad, Golestan, Bushehr, Hormozgan and East Azerbaijan were in an “orange” or serious state of alert.

And yet political and health officials in a number of other provinces have repeatedly provided information that directly contradicts the health ministry spokeswoman's statements. 

Provinces Round-up

According to the health ministry, Tehran province is also “orange,” and yet approximately 600 people are hospitalized in the nation’s capital every day. In fact, according to the criteria the health ministry has set out, Tehran is a red zone. This criteria states that a city is “red” if, on a daily basis,  three people are hospitalized every 100,000 people of the population.

IranWire receives exclusive information from Tehran’s Behesht Zahra Cemetery about the death certificates it processes. According to this information, in the 24-hour period from July 11 to July 12, 97 people — 66 men and 31 women — have lost their lives to Covid-19 in Tehran alone. From February 20 to July 12, 6,645 people have officially died from coronavirus in Tehran; these fatalities represent those whose death certificate clearly identifies them as victims of coronavirus. Of this total, 4,879 have been buried in Behesht Zahra and the bodies of the remaining 1,766 have been handed over to their families to be buried in other cemeteries within or outside Tehran province.

According to Mohammad Sadegh Motamedian, the governor of South Khorasan, out of a total of 11 cities in the province, seven are in a “red” state, two are in an “orange” state and two are in a “yellow” or lower-level state of alert. He said none of the cities in the province are in a low-danger or “white” state. However, considering the distribution of the population in these cities, overall the province is in a “red” state. And yet, according to the health ministry, the situation in South Khorasan is not even at an “orange” level. 

Golestan governor Hadi Haghshenas announced that all 20 cities in the province are in a "red" state, meaning that the entire province is facing a health emergency. To break the virus transmission chain in the province, Haghshenas announced that restrictions will be strictly enforced across the province for another week. According to him, a large number of people with the virus live in the eastern cities of Golestan but the hospitals in that area are filled to capacity. Abdolreza Fazel, president of Golestan University of Medical Sciences, reported that, with the increase in the number of patients, all hospitals in the province were full and unable to accept new patients. Again, Sadat Lari's briefing told a different story, classifying Golestan as an “orange” province.

In the province of Sistan and Baluchistan, an average of 200 people are hospitalized per day and, according to the health ministry criteria, since its population is under three million it has more than twice the number of coronavirus infections than it needs to qualify as a red zone. Reporting that in the 24- hour period between July 11 and July 12, 225 coronavirus cases had been registered, Ghasem Miri, vice president of Zahedan University of Medical Sciences, warned that the number of positive tests in the province was very worrisome and intensive care units (ICUs) had reached capacity.

News from other Iranian provinces shows that the coronavirus epidemic is gaining momentum. Infections are increasing and fatalities are on the rise. Officials continue to advise, but this advice does not appear to be having an impact.  

In recent weeks, the number of people with coronavirus symptoms who have attended the 29 medical centers in Razavi Khorasan province has increased considerably, according to Mehdi Gholian, vice present of Mashhad University of Medical Sciences. He reported that in the last week, between 600 and 1,000 people have been examined at these centers and an average of 50 percent of them have tested positive for coronavirus.

In Khuzestan, which has been a red zone since April 29, the number of new infections has been declining since July 4, but Farhad Abolnejadian, president of Ahvaz Jondishapur University of Medical Sciences, warned that the situation is fragile and infections could rise again. According to him, in the last 10 days, the number of hospitalized patients has reduced by 350 and, as a result, of the six hospitals in Ahvaz allocated to coronavirus patients, one is currently not treating any Covid-19 patients.

Pointing out that the number of infections in Fars province is on the rise, Mehrzad Lotfi, president of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, said that new beds will be added so that medical staff can use the full capacity of the hospitals. Currently, Fars province’s capacity for treating coronavirus patients consists of 818 ordinary beds, 129 ICU beds and 60 beds in recovery centers.

Restrictions in the “red” cities of Zanjan province were extended for another week and the province is now an orange zone, reported Khoda Bakhsh Moradi, a deputy governor. The provincial capital of Zanjan is now a red zone, announced Mohammad Reza Saeeni, president of Zanjan University of Medical Sciences. He said that serological tests show that, as of July 12, only 11.7 percent of the population of the province, or approximately 117,000 people, have developed antibodies against coronavirus.

Behrooz Nedaei, a deputy governor of Ardebil, warned that the increase in the number of coronavirus infections and fatalities in the province was alarming.

Reporting that the coronavirus epidemic in Qazvin has intensified, Peyman Namdar, president of Qazvin University of Medical Sciences, said that after the lockdowns ended earlier in the year, people assumed that the situation was back to normal. As a result, the city of Qazvin is a red zone, the city of Takestan is in an “orange” state of alert and other cities in the province are yellow zones — still on alert, but not at such a high level. 

In her daily presentation of the Iranian health  ministry figures on the epidemic, the ministry’s spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari said that in the 24-hour period covering July 11 and July 12, 2,186 new cases of Covid-19 had been identified. Out of them, 1,499 people had been hospitalized. According to her, as of July 12, the total number of cases since the epidemic began stood at 257,303. She said that, in the same 24 hours, 194 patients died from coronavirus, bringing the total number of fatalities to 12,829.