Rouhani Cancels Meeting After Speaker of Parliament Visits ICU Ward

As the daily death toll from Covid-19 reached 225 in Iran and many hospitals across the country ran out of beds to treat patients, President Rouhani canceled a meeting with the heads of the three branches of government scheduled to take place on October 6. Fears were especially high after Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, speaker of the parliament and the former mayor of Tehran, visited an ICU ward for coronavirus patients at Tehran’s Imam Khomeini Hospital. The meeting was canceled after an unfriendly exchange between the two men's associates.

Iranians went on to social media to criticize Ghalibaf and those who accompanied him to the hospital, including reporters from state-run radio and TV, pointing out that their loud efforts to make the most of a publicity opportunity were disrupting patients trying to recover on the ward.

Alireza Moezzi, President Rouhani’s deputy chief of staff, joined the critics and accused Ghalibaf of flouting health protocols and setting a bad example for the public. “Going to the ward where patients in critical condition were held and bringing along reporters and cameras is not standing by the people. It is belittling people’s health,” he tweeted.

But President Rouhani himself has been criticized for the visits he failed to make. As the school year got underway in early September, he abandoned a tradition he had established over the last few years, whereby he visits a school and rings a bell to announce the new academic year. One criticism was that apparently the president and others were giving the impression that the lives of top government officials were more precious and valued than the lives of ordinary people. If going to school is so dangerous, people asked, why have they been reopened and why are very young children being forced to go to school? Ghalibaf’s parliamentary assistant Mohammad Saeed Ahadian echoed this criticism and implicitly accused Rouhani of valuing his own life too much.

“While the number of coronavirus cases has been shooting upward, we are facing considerable difficulties, especially in terms of ICU beds,” said First Deputy Health Minister Iraj Harirchi. He also pointed out that the country’s health workers are exhausted. “For the last seven or eight months, our health workers in hospitals have been working to the utmost of their energy,” said Harirchi. “Then the equipment to treat coronavirus patients, such as CT scan devices, oxygen generators and ventilators, have been used beyond their capacity. Because of how old some of this equipment is, it has stopped working or needs repairs. This is a very important challenge.”

Provinces Round-up

During the first week of October, several provinces imposed restrictions, including restrictions on travel, and closed down a range of businesses. A number of provinces also banned religious ceremonies to mark Arba’een, the 40th day of the martyrdom of Imam Hossein, which this year falls on October 8.

According to a decision taken by the National Coronavirus Taskforce, starting on Saturday, October 10, people who do not wear masks in Tehran province will have to pay fines. “In Tehran province the situation is more critical,” said Iraj Harirchi. “Currently we have 4,793 coronavirus patients in the hospitals and 948 of them are in ICU wards.” According to him, “311 patients are in emergency wards waiting to be admitted into hospitals, but the hospitals do not have enough beds for them.”

The fines to be imposed on people who violate health protocols will be substantial, said Harirchi. He also said that considerable fines will be imposed on people who know they are infected with coronavirus but fail to stay at home and visit public places.

In Ahvaz, the capital of Khuzestan province, ICU wards at the three hospitals of Razi, Golestan and Sina, are full, and the number of hospitalizations in the province is now three digits.

In West Azerbaijan, the number of coronavirus fatalities in the last 24 hours rose to two digits. “Currently the total number of hospitalized patients with acute pulmonary syndrome in West Azerbaijan has reached 899,” reported Ali Ahmad Aghapour, an official of West Azerbaijan University of Medical Sciences. “Of this number, 431 are confirmed coronavirus cases and 468 are suspected cases. The number of hospitalizations at ICU wards is now 184 and 41 of these people are connected to ventilators.”

In the 24-hour period spanning October 5 and October 6, coronavirus claimed the lives of 11 patients in Markazi province.

In her daily briefing for October 6, the health ministry spokeswoman Dr. Sima Sadat Lari announced the official coronavirus statistics for the last 24 hours.

Dr. Lari also reported that, out of the 31 Iranian provinces, currently 30 provinces are in a high state of alert. 

This is part of IranWire's coronavirus chronology. Read the full chronology