Thu 05 March 2020:
Dead bodies are “piling up” in Qom due to the coronavirus outbreak, an Iranian MP said on Wednesday, warning that if the city is not quarantined, Iran will end up having the most deaths in the world due to the virus.
“Corpses piling up in Qom and the helplessness of the people of Rasht are evidence of the failure in giving timely warnings about coronavirus,” Abdolkarim Hosseinzadeh tweeted on Wednesday.
“You did not quarantine cities, but now that we are at the peak of the outbreak, at least make home quarantines mandatory in Qom and Rasht so that we do not become world record holders for the number of deaths [due to coronavirus],” he added in the same tweet.
Several Iranian officials have disputed the official coronavirus figures in Iran and criticised the government’s handling of the outbreak.
While the official death toll from the virus for the whole country stood at 12 on February 24, an MP from Qom said on the same day that 50 people had died from coronavirus in his city alone.
A lawmaker from the city of Rasht had also disputed the health ministry’s figures, saying that the death toll from coronavirus in Iran is “much higher” than the official death toll.
“I have statistics about the number of deaths due to coronavirus from three different cemeteries in Rasht and I have to say that the numbers are much higher than what is being said,” he said.
The total number of coronavirus deaths in Iran is 107 amid 3,513 confirmed cases, the health ministry said on Thursday.
Khamenei advisor infected with coronavirus
A member of Iran’s Expediency Council, Mohammad Sadr, has reportedly been infected with coronavirus, the editor-in-chief of the state-run news website Entekhab, Mostafa Faghihi, tweeted on Thursday.
The council advises Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, as well as settles disputes between the Supreme Leader and parliament. Members of the council are appointed by Khamenei.
Sadr is also reportedly a senior advisor to Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.
Several officials have contracted the virus in Iran, which has the highest death toll in the world outside of China, the epicenter of the outbreak.
Another member of the council, Mohammad Mirmohammadi, died from the virus, state media reported on Monday.
Faghihi had also previously reported that Hossein Sheikholeslam, a former advisor to Zarif, had been infected with coronavirus. This was later confirmed by state media.
The total number of coronavirus deaths in Iran is 107 amid 3,513 confirmed cases, the health ministry said on Thursday.
Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!
