Iran: Coronavirus Death Toll Exceeds 6,400 in 196 Cities

Coronavirus outbreak in Iran – Medical staff – March 2020
Written by Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI)

Confusion, chaos within the regime, local officials absent in Qom, Isfahan, no one to respond

The Peoples Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) announced this afternoon, March 18, that the death toll for the Coronavirus disaster in 196 cities across Iran has exceeded 6,400.

Added to other provinces, the number of victims in Qom is 790, in Tehran 800, Gilan 763, Isfahan 620, Khorasan 581, Mazandaran 530, Golestan 393, Khuzestan 207, and Hamedan 204.

The reports from the city of Qom indicate that contrary to the regime’s propaganda, there is an upward trend in the number of victims. The mortuaries are overloaded, and people openly curse at Khamenei (regime’s supreme leader) and blame him for their plight. Many clerics have left Qom, where the outbreak first began.

In Qom, Isfahan and some other corona-stricken cities, local authorities have left the city and do not show up for work for as long as they can, leaving lower rank officials to deal with the crisis. Most communications with the provincial and governorate offices, the municipality, and other state-related offices are left unanswered. This situation points to growing confusion and chaos within the regime.

This is while the regime leaders are deeply frightened about unrest and protests in Tehran and cities such as Qom, Isfahan, and Mashhad. They are particularly nervous about slums on the fringes of the cities while expressing privately that “unrest will erupt in areas such as Shahr-e-Rey, Eslamshahr, and Akbar Abad in the future. People are poor and can’t even afford to buy alcohol and gloves.”

While the outlook of the Coronavirus crisis worsens due to the regime’s incompetence and weak infrastructure, Hassan Rouhani, who had previously suggested that the crisis will be over by March 7, 2020, ridiculously claimed that “We have now passed the peak in Qom and Gilan, our two most difficult cities… In Gilan 20% of hospital beds are empty”!

“One should compare Tehran with London, Berlin, and Paris…and see their empty store shelves. People fight each other over napkins, are worried and upset about their food; their hospitals announce that they have no more empty beds, but we delivered”!

This is while, Alireza Zali, head of Operations to Counter Coronavirus in Tehran, said: “Officials do not have a correct picture of our hospitals. They would realize the depth of the crisis only if they saw the number of hospitalized patients and those in critical condition., “. At the same time, a representative of Rouhani’s Ministry of Health acknowledged that 147 people had died in the past 24 hours from Coronavirus.

Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI)

March 18, 2020

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