Police and Volunteer Guards Issue Covid “Violator” Fines

Across Iran, people are facing greater restrictions and many businesses have been closed down as part of the government’s efforts to tackle the coronavirus crisis. On Saturday, October 10, after weeks of discussions about imposing fines on “coronavirus violators,” officials finally announced the government’s plan. People on social media reported that police and the paramilitary Basij had started imposing fines.

Since Saturday, October 10, fines have been imposed on people who fail to wear masks in public spaces. Deputy Health Minister Ali Reza Raeesi announced that pedestrians who do not wear masks will be identified by police cameras and face fines. “This is exactly like those who do not use safety belts while driving,” he said. “Police cameras will identify them. The system used to identify people with bad hijab will be used here as well.” 

Meanwhile, it was confirmed that Mohammad Bagher Nobakht, head of the Budget and Planning Organization, and Ali Akbar Salehi, head of the Atomic Energy Organization, have both been infected with coronavirus.

Recently, because of his absence from the public arena, it was rumored that Health Minister Saeed Namaki had also contracted coronavirus but, on October 11 he denied these reports. “We have been working day and night for the last few months and I was in pain because of a problem with my spinal cord,” he said. “I have been in contact with a few people who had tested positive for coronavirus and I had a test but late at night they gave me the good news that I was not infected.”

Namaki also denied reports from various provinces, and especially from Tehran, that hospital beds have been filled to capacity. “This is absolutely not true,” he said. “Two days ago over 5,200 beds in Tehran were filled and we find this number alarming. This does not mean we have no beds available to admit patients but neither does it mean that people should get sick sooner because we do have beds!”

Namaki is one of several senior officials who in recent months have repeatedly claimed that “no patient has been kept out of the hospital because there were no beds,” but this claim has been rejected by reports not only from Tehran but from across the country.

“There is congestion of patients at the hospitals,” said First Deputy Health Minister Iraj Harirchi on October 8. “Every day there are a number of coronavirus patients in emergency wards waiting for beds to become available so that they can be hospitalized. But the moment that they are hospitalized, new patients arrive at emergency wards.”

Provinces Round-up

Arash Najimi, spokesman for Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, said the province was becoming like a factory that produces corpses. He warned that Isfahan would soon face a shortage of both equipment and medical manpower. “Unfortunately, there is no color to symbolize the dire situation of the coronavirus pandemic in Isfahan as the number of fatalities keeps rising,” he said. “If the number of patients connected to ventilators continues to rise we will have more fatalities in the coming weeks.”

According to Najimi, the number of fatalities in Isfahan province has doubled in recent days. Every day more than 1,500 coronavirus cases are identified in the province. He said the actual number could be two to three times higher than the number of confirmed cases.

Alborz province is also in a critical condition. In the last 24 hours 11 Covid-19 patients have died, bringing the total death toll in the province to 1,304. “Since yesterday 114 patients with coronavirus symptoms have been hospitalized across the province,” reported Dr. Mohammad Fathi, president of Alborz University of Medical Sciences.

According to Mohammad Jamalian, president of Arak University of Medical Sciences, in the last 24 hours 16 coronavirus patients died in Markazi province. “In the last 24 hours 278 patients have tested positive for coronavirus, bringing the total cases since the coronavirus outbreak in the province to 17,548,” he reported.

In her daily briefing for October 11, health ministry spokeswoman Dr. Sima Sadat Lari announced the official coronavirus statistics for the last 24 hours.

This is the highest number of Covid-19 fatalities in a single day since the coronavirus outbreak began.

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