Iranian MPs, health officials claim Tehran is under-reporting coronavirus

A World Health Organization (WHO) technical team flew into Tehran to help with the response in the country with the most deaths outside China, where the flu-like disease originated.

By ZACHARY KEYSER
Iranian couple wearing protective masks to prevent contracting a coronavirus walk at Grand Bazaar in Tehran, Iran (photo credit: WANA NEWS AGENCY/REUTERS)
Iranian couple wearing protective masks to prevent contracting a coronavirus walk at Grand Bazaar in Tehran, Iran
(photo credit: WANA NEWS AGENCY/REUTERS)
Iran, one of the nations worst-hit by the coronavirus, most recently reported 2,336 infections, with 77 deaths occurring as a direct result of the outbreak afflicting the country.
The new figures, which were released on state-run television on Tuesday, reflected 835 new cases and 11 deaths in one day; the previous day, Tehran reported 523 new cases and 12 deaths. These figures released over the course of the past two days have brought death rates down from 10% to a less alarming 3%, matching the ratios being reported out of China and other countries.
But Iranian members of parliament and health officials allege that the government is grossly under-reporting the death toll as well as the spread of the disease to the public, according to a report by Radio Farda.
According to the report, head of the Health Authority in the Golestan Province Dr. Abdolreza Fazel stated that there have been 594 reported coronavirus cases in his province alone.
Iranian MP Gholam Ali Jafarzadeh Imanabadi, from Rasht, stated that within the Gilan Province all the hospitals are currently at capacity with coronavirus patients. Pharmacies are also short of gloves and other supplies.
The MP added that the official figures are "something like a joke," urging the media to focus their attention away from Qom, where the virus is believed to have originated, to other provinces such as Gilan, which he alleges the situation is critical.
Imanabadi alleged that government officials have been downplaying the extent of the virus, posing a serious threat to public health. He stated that this type of misinformation has led to flagrant procedural errors in containing the virus within the country.
According to the report, quarantine procedures in Gilan started ten days after the initial outbreak in Qom. The Rasht MP also added that many of the deaths caused by the outbreak have not been registered as such, and this has led to some unsafe burial practices, possibly leading to more cases.
Additionally, with the extent of the outbreak being kept from becoming public knowledge, travel throughout the country has been unregulated. Regulating travel is an effective tool to keep the virus from spreading to unaffected regions. With this in mind, Imanabadi noted there have been over 700,000 Iranians who have traveled to the Gilan province from other parts of the country since the outbreak began in Qom.
Health Minister Saeed Namaki said on Tuesday that police will now be controlling traffic to and from the affected areas – the areas he was referring to, however, were not specified in the report.

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Other members of parliament including Qom MP Ahmad Amirabadi Farahani, who tested positive for the coronavirus himself, also accused the government of underplaying figures. Farahani said that at least ten people die in Qom every day as a direct result of the outbreak, contradicting government reports.
Other eyebrow raisers have been reported as well. For example, the cause of death of a 25-year-old nurse in Gilan was initially and officially reported to be the effect of normal "flu-like symptoms." Seven days after her death, however, it was revealed that she died from the coronavirus.
Instances like this have led many to wonder if medical supplies are being allocated fairly, considering "well-connected individuals" such as members of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's family received their coronavirus tests immediately after experiencing symptoms, whereas the deceased nurse wasn't diagnosed until a week after she died. 
Some question whether these failures have been made partially out of incompetence, charging that the Health Ministry does not know how to find, quarantine or test the sick.
On Tuesday, the head of Iran's emergency medical services, Pirhossein Kolivand, was himself infected with the virus, according to the ILNA news agency.
Others, including another MP from Gilan, noted that coronavirus samples are first being sent to Tehran, which significantly delays results from returning to the surrounding provinces – in what is a time-sensitive situation.
A spokesperson for Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said the public would have to wait a few more weeks before the warm weather reduces the effects of the outbreak. Many experts, however, deny that such weather has any effect on the coronavirus.
According to a Jerusalem Post report, Amirabadi said there had been up to 50 deaths in Iran from coronavirus on February 24. However, the regime condemned the critic for spreading the news, claiming that only 12 had died from the virus and that there were only 61 cases in the country.
This would mean that for five days, Iran has known that there were likely more cases concentrated in the holy city of Qom, where religious pilgrims gather.
The country soon moved to shut down schools and universities, which will continue until the end of this week. But Iranians and other pilgrims who came to Qom and became sick with the virus were probably already on the move.
They would have flown back to Iraq’s Najaf and to Bahrain via Dubai, as well as arriving in Kuwait and Oman. Iran did not inform its neighbors until it was too late. By that time, Turkish government officials were already warning that there might be 750 cases in Iran.
A World Health Organization technical team flew into Tehran to help with the response in the country with the most deaths outside China, where the flu-like disease originated.
During its week-long visit, the four-person WHO team is to meet health officials and visit facilities and laboratories dealing with the coronavirus outbreak.
Seth J. Frantzman and Reuters contributed to this report.


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