Five Cities Quarantined as Covid-19 Deaths Spike

According to official figures, Covid-19 has killed over 250 people in Iran each day in recent days and, with 253 new deaths in the past 24 hours, the official death toll has now passed 30,000 people.

To slow down the spread of the virus, the government quarantined five major metropolitan areas for the long weekend that includes a day of mourning for the passing of the Prophet Mohammed and for the martyrdom of his grandson Imam Hassan, the second Shia Imam. But neither the people nor the agencies responsible for enforcing quarantines took this measure seriously. Many left the quarantined cities to travel and in many cities, including Mashhad, public mourning ceremonies with large gatherings of people were held. What became clear was that the government, as represented by the National Coronavirus Taskforce, lacks the power or credibility to implement its decisions.

The lack of success in carrying out measures such as mandating masks in Tehran and banning travel to and from the five quarantined cities has convinced the government that it needs to implement stricter measures. On October 17, First Deputy Health Minister Iraj Harirchi talked about imposing more exacting restrictions in Tehran and 45 other cities with high levels of coronavirus infections.

With the rapid increase in the number of coronavirus cases and fatalities, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has allowed the military to add their facilities and manpower to the fight against the pandemic. According to Hasan Araghizadeh, head of the General Staff of the Armed Forces Health Department, the military is ready to set up field hospitals for victims of the virus.

This offer was not enthusiastically received by Health Minister Saeed Namaki. “Nowhere in the world are field hospitals used as long as there are regular hospitals,” he said, only a few minutes after the announcement by the military.

But reports from across Iran indicate that “regular hospitals” are running out of beds. A few days ago Anooshirvan Mohseni Bandpey, governor of Tehran province, reported that of the 14,000 beds at government hospitals in the province, 5,000 of them are occupied by Covid-19 patients.

Besides a shortage of hospital beds, obtaining necessary medications for Covid-19 patients has become problematic as well. Hospitals say that they do not have enough medication and the prices on the open market are extremely high. Nevertheless, Mohammad Reza Shanehsaz, head of the Food and Drug Administration, claimed that Iran produces enough coronavirus medication and even exports some of its medicinal stock.

He denied that there are shortages of Remdesivir, Favipiravir and Actemra, the most effective drugs so far for treating Covid-19, and speculated that hospitals cannot procure them because of financial difficulties and because they owe money to the companies that sell them.

With the arrival of the cold season, and worsening air pollution, there are concerns that respiratory diseases are bound to increase, especially in Tehran.

Tehran’s air is going to be more polluted than previous years, warned Mohammad Mehdi Mirzaei Qomi, head of Iran’s Environmental Protection Agency Climate Change Center. “Since health protocols promote the use of private means of transportation and the health ministry’s advice to people is not to use public transportation, we shall witness more air pollution this year than previous years,” he said. “Unfortunately, air pollution directly affects the situation with coronavirus. An increase of one unit of suspended particles in the air leads to an eight percent increase in Covid-19 fatalities.”

Provinces Round-up

With the rate of infections showing no sign of abating, Anooshirvan Mohseni Bandpey announced that restrictions imposed recently have been extended.

“All restrictions announced last week will remain in place in Tehran province from Sunday, October 18, for another week,” he said. “Our emphasis is that schools, universities and other educational institutions hold their classes not in person but remotely,” the Tehran province governor said.

He also announced that many educational, religious and leisure centers in Tehran will remain closed and pointed out that people must be wearing masks the moment that they leave their homes.

In the past 24 hours, 80 new Covid-19 patients have been hospitalized in Gilan province, reported Abtin Heydarzadeh, vice president of Gilan University of Medical Sciences. “This number is unprecedented,” he said. According to him, currently 350 Covid-19 patients are hospitalized in the province.

Coronavirus restrictions in Qazvin province have been extended for the third straight week, announced Manouchehr Habibi, director of the Qazvin Coronavirus Taskforce. “All schools, universities, educational institutions and vocational, technical and driving schools will be closed in the coming week and must do whatever they can remotely,” he said. “Religious, cultural and social gatherings are banned as in the two previous weeks.”

In her daily briefing for October 17, health ministry’s spokeswoman Dr. Sima Sadat Lari announced the official coronavirus statistics for the past 24 hours:

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