Covid-19 Crisis Means Patients With Other Illnesses go Without Treatment

The rise in the number of Covid-19 patients and the need for beds to treat them has increasingly reduced the number of hospital beds for patients with other medical needs. In addition, underlying diseases including diabetes, asthma, cancer and kidney and liver disorders make people more vulnerable to coronavirus. As a result, fewer of them go to medical centers, fearing they will catch the virus, and, if they do, they fear that minimal resources are available to care for them.

“In Iran, 11 percent of people over 25, or approximately 5.5 million people, have diabetes,” said Dr. Afshin Ostovar, the head of the health ministry’s Department of Non-Infectious Diseases. “With the coronavirus crisis and the allocation of hospital beds to Covid-19 patients, services for treating these patients have been disrupted. In recent months even some diabetes clinics have been shut down and this has made it difficult for diabetic patients, especially since they are in more danger if they are infected with coronavirus.”

Mohammad Haji Jafari, vice president of Kashan University of Medical Sciences in Isfahan province, reported that the city’s Shahid Beheshti Hospital is running out of beds and the increase in the number of Covid-19 patients has left less capacity for non-coronavirus patients.

“Cancer patients, patients in need of dialysis and other non-coronavirus patients have always used the services of Kashan Shahid Beheshti Hospital. What wrongs have these patients committed to deserve the risk of coronavirus infection when they come to Shahid Beheshti Hospital? A heart patient or a patient who needs dialysis could be in mortal danger if he does not receive medical services on time.”

Since the outbreak of coronavirus, health minister Saeed Namaki has repeatedly claimed that no patient has been kept out of treatment centers in Iran. But the fact cannot be ignored that a good number of patients do not go to hospitals in the first place because they are afraid of contracting coronavirus.

 

Health Minister: “I am not going anywhere”

After the National Coronavirus Taskforce ignored proposals for a two-week lockdown of Tehran on Saturday, November 14, there were reports that Saeed Namaki had resigned in protest. On November 15, he denied these reports as mere rumors. “Although I might insist on my positions and bargain hard, I am not one who would leave the arena to the detriment of the people,” he said

Namaki also commented on various officials and their initial response to the coronavirus outbreak, describing them as “naïve.” “At the time I said at cabinet meetings that I worried the day would come that this fire would strike at each and every member of the cabinet and this is what has happened.”

 

Tehran City Council Still Calling for Lockdown

Despite the fact that the National Coronavirus Taskforce failed to consider a lockdown of Tehran in its latest weekly session, members of Tehran City Council still believe that a total lockdown is the only way to deal with the current coronavirus crisis in the city.

“The restrictions imposed last week by the National Coronavirus Taskforce have had no serious impact on traffic or on people’s behavior,” said Mohsen Hashemi Rafsanjani, president of Tehran City Council, who reiterated the necessity of a total lockdown of the nation’s capital. “According to a health ministry official, we are not far off the danger of 1,000 fatalities per day in the country,” he said.

He then addressed President Rouhani: “the president must rest assured that this proposal has been reviewed by the experts of Tehran City Council’s Health Committee and has been approved by the Tehran provincial government after being endorsed by the Tehran Coronavirus Taskforce.”

Rafsanjani had earlier criticized government officials, accusing them of lacking “the audacity and the will” to break the chain of coronavirus transmission.

 

Coronavirus has Killed at least 19,000 in Tehran

According to the daily report by Tehran’s Behesht Zahra Cemetery and based on the cause of death recorded on death certificates, in the last 24 hours 160 people died from Covid-19 in the Iranian capital, reported Nahid Khoda-Karami, head of Tehran City Council’s Health Committee. She said that since the coronavirus outbreak over 19,000 people in Tehran have died from the virus.

Khoda-Karami said she believes that “drop by drop” restrictions have not contained the virus and the only way to stop its spread is a total lockdown of Tehran for at least two weeks “to prevent more deaths among the citizens.” According to her, close to 3,000 Covid-19 patients in critical condition are being treated at ICU wards in Tehran, and these wards are almost full.

 

Provinces Round-up

Dr. Hamid Sharifi, professor of contagious diseases at Kerman University of Medical Sciences, warned that if the surge of coronavirus in Iran is not contained the number of fatalities will rise so high that the cemeteries will not be able to bury all the bodies. He also warned that if serious action was not taken immediately, the situation would become more critical in the coming days as the weather turns very cold, and the hospitals might even run out of beds, especially in ICU wards. He called on the government to establish contact tracing so that people with coronavirus are identified and isolated and cannot infect others.

In the 24-hour period spanning November 14 and November 15, in Kermanshah province another 22 Covid-19 patients died, bringing the total death toll in the province to 1,075. This was the highest number of coronavirus fatalities in the province over a period of one day. In the same 24 hours, 232 new Covid-19 patients were hospitalized across the province. Currently 1,202 coronavirus patients are hospitalized in Kermanshah, 174 of them in ICUs.

The transmission of the virus at wedding and mourning ceremonies continues to be a problem preoccupying provincial officials in Lorestan province. On November 15, Dariush Shahounvand, Lorestan’s prosecutor-general, announced a ban on wedding ceremonies and said that those violating the rule would be prosecuted. “If a person or persons violate this ordinance, action will be taken to impound cars carrying the bride, the groom and their companions and these people can be prosecuted for endangering public health.”

The prosecutor also announced that no more than 15 people can be present at funeral parlors and no more than 50 at a funeral. He instructed the police to impound cars if the ordinance is violated and to treat violators “decisively.”

 

Iran’s Latest Coronavirus Statistics

In her daily briefing for November 15, the health ministry spokeswoman Dr. Sima Sadat Lari announced the official coronavirus statistics for the last 24 hours:

 

Dr. Lari also reported that all 31 Iranian provinces are in red, orange or yellow states of alert.

 

 

 

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