Iran regime officially keeps telling people that no one in Iran has contracted the Coronavirus, yet.
While many countries across the world have prioritized the fight against the deadly coronavirus, the Iranian regime is neglecting the threat to the health of the Iranian people and is not taking the necessary precautionary measures to prevent the spread of the virus.
This is while the health adviser of Zanjan Province’s Medical Sciences University announced on February 6 that a patient suspected of contracting the Coronavirus had been hospitalized in the ICU of the city’s Moussavi Hospital. There were similar reports from Isfahan.
The official silence, however, has caused grave concern among the populace. Refraining to inform people about incidents of the Coronavirus, is itself a major threat to the Iranian people’s health.
The regime has also declared it a crime to disseminate any news on the internet about the Coronavirus, and anyone who does so will be legally dealt with.
A resident of Sanandaj was arrested by security forces for posting a video clip on the hospitalization of someone who had contracted the Corona virus.
Some reports indicate that coronavirus infection cases have been spotted in Isfahan and Tabriz.
On Sunday, a spokesperson for the Isfahan University said, “A 29-year-old individual with coronavirus symptoms referred to the Farabi hospital in Isfahan and is under special care.”
But the same person was released from the hospital a few hours later without any clarification or explanations on the reason.
Political observers say Iranian officials are reluctant to report on incidents of patients contracting the Coronavirus in Iran, fearing that it would scare people in the days preceding the parliamentary elections on February 21.
Iran’s Health Ministry officials have placed all hospitals on full alert, but according to a secret directive to hospital authorities across the country, they must refrain from announcing any news on incidents of the Coronavirus in Iran.
Unlike many other countries, Iranian officials have not banned incoming flights and passengers from China.
Almost 500 people have died so far and in the epicenter of the outbreak, Wuhan. The new Coronavirus is believed to have originated in a food market in Wuhan that was illegally selling wildlife. Health experts think it may have originated in bats and then passed to humans, possibly via another species.
More than 74 million people are now subject to some form of travel restriction with many unable to leave their homes.
Iranian authorities’ negligence over health threats adds to the long list of mismanagement and corrupt policies that threaten the lives of the Iranian people.
In October 2019, hundreds of villagers in Lordegan county, Charmahal Bakhtiari province, were infected with the HIV virus as a result of negligence by health authorities conducting glucose tests. The event resulted in mass protests in the province. The regime responded not by taking medical measures but by dispatching security forces to quell the protests and establish an undeclared martial law.
