close button
Switch to Iranwire Light?
It looks like you’re having trouble loading the content on this page. Switch to Iranwire Light instead.
Special Features

Amid Deepening Coronavirus Crisis, Officials Propose New Year Package Tours

February 25, 2021
Pouyan Khoshhal
6 min read
Requests by the governor of Khuzestan and other provincial officials for a two-week lockdown of the province have been submitted to the National Coronavirus Taskforce
Requests by the governor of Khuzestan and other provincial officials for a two-week lockdown of the province have been submitted to the National Coronavirus Taskforce
Health Minister Saeed Namaki complained bitterly that some border crossings with Iraq are still open despite all warnings
Health Minister Saeed Namaki complained bitterly that some border crossings with Iraq are still open despite all warnings
Health Minister Saeed Namaki sharply criticized the apparent disregard shown to health protocols in Khuzestan
Health Minister Saeed Namaki sharply criticized the apparent disregard shown to health protocols in Khuzestan

Khuzestan province is still in a critical situation. Medics and provincial officials have petitioned the government for a two-week lockdown of the province, but they have not yet succeeded in convincing decision-makers that a total quarantine is desperately needed in this deprived part of Iran.

In the past two weeks, the number of outpatients across the country has also been rising and the health minister has confirmed the new variant of coronavirus identified in Britain has now reached all 31 provinces. Despite this, no further restrictions have been imposed and instead, the Ministry of Tourism has unveiled the idea of paid-for package tours around the country for Iranian New Year – as a means of combating coronavirus.

Ongoing Pleas for the Lockdown of Khuzestan Province

The surge in new infections in Khuzestan continues. All 11 Iranian cities currently on red alert are located in this province. Vehicles with out-of-town license plates cannot enter cities in Khuzestan and those with local license plates cannot leave either. Roads from the neighboring provinces of Ilam and Lorestan have been closed as well.

According to Karim Hosseini, chairman of the parliament’s Khuzestan Caucus, formal requests by the provincial governor and other provincial officials for a two-week lockdown of the province have been submitted to the National Coronavirus Taskforce. Earlier requests had also been made by local health officials and the presidents of major hospitals in the Khuzestani capital of Ahvaz, but the National Coronavirus Taskforce did not take any action in response.

Hospital officials in Ahvaz say all ICU wards in the city are now at capacity and few beds are available in other wards. “The shortage of hospitals beds is more severe in Ahvaz because other towns have fewer specialized facilities and patients are sent to Ahvaz,” said Dr. Farhad Soltani, vice president of Ahvaz Jondishapur University of Medical Sciences. “We have also a shortage of nurses in all Ahvaz hospitals.”

The number of patients in the red-rated cities of Abadan, Shadegan and Khorramshahr is increasing exponentially, reported Dr. Shokrollah Salmanzadeh, president of Abadan University of Medical Sciences. In the past 24 hours alone, 173 new Covid-19 patients were hospitalized in Abadan: 64 from Abadan itself, 44 from Khorramshahr and 65 from Shadegan.

Health Minister Blames Spread of Infection on the People

Two days ago Health Minister Saeed Namaki said his job better befitted the title “manager of a morgue” than health minister and grumbled: “This is not the way to run the country.” Today he clarified that he was angry not because of non-enforcement of travel restrictions, but because of the pilgrims traveling to holy places in Iraq.

In his latest statement on February 24, Namaki also sharply criticized the apparent disregard shown to health protocols in Khuzestan. “Unfortunately, in Shadegan, which was our first center of contagion, compliance with health protocols has dropped to zero,” he said. “It was totally clear to us that we were going to have a big, big crisis in Khuzestan in the near future.”

In the past two weeks the number of outpatients across the country has been rising and the coronavirus variant has reached all provinces, said Namaki. He also warned that infection with this variant can lead to Covid-19 requiring hospitalization within 72 hours, whereas it generally took Covid-19 contracted from the original virus seven to 10 days to become that severe, if at all. He attributed the new surge in Khuzestan “mostly” to the highly infectious variant.

Dr. Masoud Mardani, a member of the National Coronavirus Taskforce’s Scientific Committee, warned against traveling during Nowruz: the holidays that mark the start of the new Iranian calendar year on March 21. “We foresee a definite increase in the number of coronavirus fatalities in the coming days because when cases increase so do hospitalizations and then fatalities,” he said.

New Year Travels Allowed

Despite all the warnings against new year travels, Iran’s Tourism Ministry announced that it has gained official permission for organizing limited intercity travel during the vacations. “We have obtained permission for limited Nowruz trips from the National Coronavirus Taskforce,” announced Vali Teymouri, a deputy tourism minister, on February 23. The aim is apparently to boost the flagging tourism industry, which has naturally been in slump since the coronavirus outbreak.

“We propose two travel models that can be implemented following health protocols in the country,” Teymouri said last week. “The first model for Iranian New Year proposes travel by means of package tours. Through package tours, travelers benefit from services provided by the tour and they will stay in authorized accommodation centers [and destinations] under the supervision of the Ministry of Tourism.”

In the second model, Teymouri added, people will not go on tours, but when traveling to their destination city they will stay in authorized accommodation centers under the supervision of the ministry, so as “to comply with all health protocols and maintain public health”. Iranians traditionally make hundreds of thousands of domestic trips during the New Year holidays, when most businesses and workplaces are closed, as are schools.

Iran’s Latest Coronavirus Statistics

In her daily briefing for February 24, Health Ministry spokeswoman Dr. Sima Sadat Lari announced the official coronavirus statistics for the past 24 hours:

Amid Deepening Coronavirus Crisis, Officials Propose New Year Package Tours

Provinces Round-up

According to the latest figures announced by Dr. Lari, 11 Iranian cities are currently in a red state of alert, while 52 cities are in an orange state of alert, 217 cities are on yellow alert and 168 are rated blue.

With the deaths of two more Covid-19 patients in Alborz, the death toll in the province since the coronavirus outbreak has now reached 2,732, reported Dr. Mohammad Fathi, president of Alborz University of Medical Sciences. In the past 24 hours a total of 44 patients with Covid-19 symptoms were hospitalized and the number of inpatients in the province now stands at 296.

Mehrdad Babaei, spokesman for Alborz Coronavirus Taskforce, said that as of now five confirmed cases of infection with the coronavirus variant have been identified in his province and three of them have died. The true number is likely to be significantly higher.

The southern province of Hormozgan and the Persian Gulf islands are the destination of many vacationers during the cold season, and it has been reported that so far, the coronavirus variant has sent four patients to hospitals in this province. A total of nine cases of infection with the variant have been identified in Hormozgan. The number of inpatients in the province now stands at 111 and, of these people, 22 are being treated in ICUs.

Cases of infection with the coronavirus variant have now been reported from nine Iranian province of Razavi Khorasan, South Khorasan, Markazi, Alborz, Tehran, Qazvin, Khuzestan, Hormozgan and West Azerbaijan. According to the National Coronavirus Taskforce, as of now 112 cases of infection have been identified across Iran and seven of these patients have died. This figure is likely to be a huge understatement because the provinces are not equipped with laboratories that can identify cases of the coronavirus variant, and must send samples to Pasteur Institute in Tehran to be tested.

comments

Features

A Week After the Earthquake, Residents of Sisakht are Still Looking for Assistance

February 24, 2021
Ramin Azarian
3 min read
A Week After the Earthquake, Residents of Sisakht are Still Looking for Assistance