Iran Coronavirus Outbreak: Surging Death Toll Rejects Regime’s Propaganda and Cover-Up
Written by
Mahmoud Hakamian
he Iranian regime forces people back to work amid the coronavirus, while downplaying the crisis and giving engineered statistics of the total number of COVID-19 deaths and infection. The crisis has now reached a point that the regime’s officials are admitting to its severity failing the regime’s propaganda.
On Tuesday, the regime’s Health Ministry announced: “There have been 3,117 new cases in the past 24 hours, a fourfold increase in one month, roughly equal to highest in the country in the past three and a half months.” “The highest number of patients in 24 hours on March 30, 2020, was 3,186.”
The death toll in five other hospitals from 138 in Tehran province reached at least 1,105.
Alireza Zali, head of the National Coronavirus Combat Taskforce (NCCT) in Tehran, told state television on Monday: “The Coronavirus danger has not been eliminated whatsoever from the country, including in Tehran Province.”
The People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), which has been closely monitoring the coronavirus infections and casualties in Iran, announced on Tuesday that nearly 49,000 people have lost their lives.
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis, the regime’s officials, particularly supreme leader Ali Khamenei and president Hassan Rouhani, have been conducting a cover-up policy parallel with negligence and inaction. Yet, they all have been blaming people for “not abiding by regulations,” arresting them for telling the truth or as they put it, “rumor mongering,” or speaking of “bioterrorism,” and blaming foreign countries, particularly the United States and its maximum pressure campaign on regime for its illicit activities.
The mullahs’ regime denied the existence of COVID-19 in Iran for days to hold its sham parliamentary election with a larger turnout, which met a general boycott. When the regime was forced to announce the existence of the virus, its officials started downplaying the crisis, refusing to hold a national quarantine. After days they were compelled to quarantine people, yet without financially backing them, which resulted in more people joining the army of starving people. Fearing a nationwide uprising and trying to save its economy to have the means for continuing its terrorism and oppression by plundering people’s wealth, the regime forced people back to work and reopened religious sites as its source of income.
In a nutshell, the regime was aware of the possible consequences and rising number of coronavirus infections and deaths, yet the mullahs again prioritized their interests and prolonging their grasp on power over people’s lives and wellbeing.
But will they be successful?
The truth is the regime is in a deadlock. Engulfed with crises, such as international isolation and facing a restive society which needs a spark to explode, the regime forced people to choose between starvation to death and death by the novel coronavirus, so they wouldn’t be able to pursue their demand of regime change. In addition, the regime refuses to announce the real death toll, so it wouldn’t result in a social turmoil. Now, the COVID-19 crisis has reached a point that regime officials are forced to acknowledge the virus is out of control. In addition, the MEK’s revelations and international campaign of exposing the regime’s cover-up has discredited the regime’s words for the people, international community and even for the regime’s own officials.
In this regard, on April 7, Iran-Emrouz state-run daily wrote: “We are going to have a major social upheaval after the Coronavirus is over. The situation is not going to be calm. It is going to be exactly like the period after the 2017 elections (uprisings), and we are going to see repeated and powerful incidents.”
Resalat daily wrote on May 26: “Only one excuse is needed, then like a match flame that falls into a haystack, everything [of the regime] will be burnt.”