Iran: Coronavirus death toll exceeds 41,000
Upward trend in Lorestan, Mazandaran, Khuzestan, Kerman, Central, Kohgiluyeh- Boyer-Ahmad, Ilam, and Hamedan
Maryam Rajavi: The sudden dismissal of the Minister of Industry, Mines, and Trade by Rouhani shows a surge in regime’s infighting over the plunder and theft of the Iranian people’s wealth, and speaks to the deep crisis gripping the regime amid the Coronavirus pandemic. Plunder, repression, and export of terrorism are inherent to this regime.
The People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI / MEK) announced this afternoon, Tuesday, May 12, 2020, the Coronavirus death toll in 317 cities in Iran has exceeded 41,000. The number of victims in Qom is 3,370, Mazandaran 2,510, Khuzestan 2,320, Golestan 1,280, Hamedan 1,140, Lorestan 1,085, Kurdistan 660, Central Province 582, and Kerman 460.
According to doctors, more than 130 Coronavirus patients have died in Tehran’s Shohaday-e Gomnam and more than 100 in Ziaeian hospitals, respectively.
The Epidemiology Committee of the Health Ministry has announced, “The upward trend or the beginning of the peak is observed in eight provinces, including Lorestan, Mazandaran, Khuzestan, Kerman, Central, Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad, Ilam, and Hamedan,” the state official news agency ISNA reported today.
Today, Mehrdad Sharifi, health council secretary in Ahvaz (southwest), told the state-run daily, Etemad, “We have more than 1,800 garbage collectors in Ahvaz who do so without gloves and other protective equipment. These people are at great risk of contracting Coronavirus and transferring it to others.” “Couldn’t the Headquarters to Execute Imam Khomeini’s Order and the Mostazafan (Abased) Foundation, help organize and cover them at least for a short time to curb the disease?” he asked.
The state official news agency, Mehr, quoting Kerman’s vice chairman of the University of Medical Sciences, today, reported a “significant increase in the number of Coronavirus infections in the province in recent days.”
Regarding the situation in North Khorasan, regime’s parliament deputy, Hadi Ghavami, told the state-run radio, Farhang today, “The number of people infected with Corona in North Khorasan has increased in recent days and the death toll is higher than the national average.”
Also, the regime’s official news agency, IRNA, reporting from North Khorasan, wrote, ” Since the first week of May, the number of patients has gradually increased in the city of Farouj. The city is in a red state.”
“The daily decrease in the number of announced deaths makes it appear as though the situation is normal,” the state-run Jahan-e- Sanat newspaper wrote today. “In the cities, people with COVID-19 are no longer taken to the hospital but left without adequate care (to die), so they would go directly to the cemetery.”
Saeed Namaki, the Health Minister, once again blamed the people for the upward trend in an interview with the state TV on May 12. He said, “I urge the people to observe the guidelines. We are facing huge losses in some provinces where people defied them thinking that the situation is somewhat normal. The biggest strategic mistake is to think that Coronavirus is over. We can return to a bad situation at any moment. This is truly a dangerous and malicious phenomenon for us.” He also said that according to Khamenei’s “recommendation,” “A new review was carried out so that special religious ceremony on the occasion of the anniversary of the martyrdom of Imam Ali, the Shiites first Imam, from midnight to 2 am is held.” He subsequently warned people that they should be observant and “not blame my colleagues and I for an uptick in the number of those who get infected as we attempt to open mosques to the people.”
According to Radio Farhang, May 12, Amir Khojasteh, a regime’s parliament deputy said, “Today, our country is engaged with two types of viruses, the Coronavirus, and mismanagement in the economic and living standard arenas… (which) combined with unbridled inflation have made life so difficult that Coronavirus consequences are comparatively insignificant. The president says he fired the Minister of Industry, Mines, and Trade for failing to control the car market. Who would you fire for a 100 percent increase in the price of housing and home appliances and a 30 to 100 percent rise in the cost of food and clothing while the salaries of workers, employees, and pensioners have not been increased?”
Another parliament deputy Hosseini-kia told Radi Farhang today, “The incompetence of the aging government became apparent to everyone during the coronavirus pandemic. The government blamed all the problems on the public and did not seriously implement the assistance it had promised to provide.”
Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), referred to the rising toll of the virus and added: All the promises by the mullahs to the deprived and calamity-stricken people of Iran are hollow and worthless. The only way to end poverty, destitution, and unemployment is to end the mullahs’ evil dictatorship and establish freedom and people’s sovereignty.
Mrs. Rajavi said: Rouhani’s sudden dismissal of the Minister of Industry, Mines, and Trade reflects the aggravating factional feuding over the plunder and theft of the Iranian people’s wealth and speaks to the deep crisis gripping the regime amid the Coronavirus pandemic. Plunder and theft, much like suppression and export of terrorism, are endemic to this regime.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI)
May 12, 2020
