Iran: Coronavirus fatalities exceed 35,300 in 298 cities

Epidemic is on the rise in nine provinces. Supreme National Security Council imposes a ban on releasing figures on death toll in provinces
Amid Coronavirus, the regime hike bread prices instead of helping the people

Mrs. Rajavi: This marks the start of imposing a new round of heavy, backbreaking pressures on the deprived and Corona-stricken people of Iran

The People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI / MEK) announced on Saturday, April 25, 2020, that the Coronavirus fatalities had exceeded 35,300 in 298 cities across. The number of victims in Qom is 3,140, Mazandaran 2,250, Khuzestan 1,640, Alborz 1,225, East Azerbaijan 1,140, Lorestan 805, Sistan and Baluchistan 710, Ardabil 640, Semnan 630, and Kohgiluyeh and Boyer Ahmad 230. These figures are added to the statistics in other provinces.

Despite the regime’s falsified figures, experts and functionaries unmask the false reporting one after the other and warn against the decision to send people back to work.

Today, state-run daily Hamshari wrote, “The official report by the Epidemiology Committee of the National Coronavirus Combat Task Force (NCCT), there has been an upward trend in nine provinces. According to this report that was published recently and offered an assessment of the statistics until April 22, nine provinces, Qom, Ilam, Ardabil, Gilan, Golestan, Hamedan, Kohgiluyeh and Boyer Ahmad, and Khuzestan have experienced the upward trend of the Coronavirus infection and deaths.”

Last night, Alireza Zali, the NCCT chief in Tehran, told the state TV, “The number of new patients in Tehran is on the rise. Regrettably, opening parks sent the wrong message to the people such that they assumed the situation of the epidemic has changed in Tehran. The extent of the virus in Tehran has not ended or even lowered. Yesterday, we had 247 cases of new infection and hospitalization in the city of Tehran, and 68 were hospitalized directly in ICU.”

Yesterday, Mohammad Hossein Ghorbani, the representative of the Health Minister in Gilan Province, told the State TV, “The possibility of a second wave of this disease in this province is felt more than ever before. The fact that upon the orders of NCCT headed by the president (Rouhani), the entrance of all provinces were opened from April 19, which was a strategic mistake. As a result, we are facing peaks of the disease in two directions. On the entrance to the province on the route of Roodsar- Astara, and in Looshan.” “more than 700 individuals were infected on April 19 and 20… We are still facing a crisis… The high volume of newly infected people who enter hospitals causes fatigue in the medical treatment teams,” he added.

Today, Alim Yar-Mohammadi, a Regime parliament deputy from Zahedan, told the state-run daily Setareh Sobh, “Since 74 percent of the people in Sistan and Baluchistan province live under the poverty line, have no permanent jobs, and are day laborers,… as soon as the government permitted to start work and activities, the number of infected people exponentially increased, which caused concern among officials of the Medical Science University.” “If the government thought of measures to support people with no permanent jobs in Sistan and Baluchistan, today, we would not have faced the Coronavirus outbreak among them.” He added.

Mohammad Hossein Ayati, president of Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, today, told the state official news agency, ILNA, “I would never say that Khorasan Razavi Province and city of Mashhad are no longer a red-state… the status is red, and we should expect a catastrophe. We must be ready for the worst conditions.”

Meanwhile, today, Dr.Massoud Younesian, a member of Tehran University of Medical Sciences, whose remarks were published at Setareh Sobh daily, called the actual Coronavirus statistics 20 times higher than the official figures. He said, “Systematically, the statistics are much less than the reality … The test used is not very sensitive and only diagnoses half of the cases. Also, half of the hospitalized people are ever tested, and if we accept that only 20 percent of the (infected) cases are hospitalized, half of which are tested, and only half of these tests are positive. So we can say that the actual statistics are about 20 times what is reported.”

In another development, Mohammad Reza Nikbakht, head of Lorestan University of Medical Sciences, expressed his view on the lack of credible statistics presented to the public. He told the state TV, Aflak, on April 22, “The National Security Council and the Protection department of the Health Ministry ordered us not to reveal statistics… Generally, in our country, orders come from high up; we are just agents with no jurisdictions.”

Meanwhile, fear from an uprising by the hungry is looming inside the regime. The state-owned Aftab-e-Yazd daily wrote today: “There is a fear that the post-Coronavirus deep social crisis which exists even today would deepen. How far can the government continue with distributing a million tomans (60 dollars) gift aids? Distributing money will not solve the problem. The problem is that, due to many businesses that have suffered, the impoverished sectors that are unemployed, added to the inflation on the rise, and the deflation created, all of these can bring a social collapse. Add these to the recent discontent and protest movements to have a true picture of the affairs.”

In the helm of the Coronavirus pandemic, not only does the anti-human regime help the people, but in different provinces, even the price of bread is being raised by the latter. According to state newspapers, bread price has seen a 50% increase in Khuzestan.

Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), affirmed that this marks the start of imposing a new round of heavy, backbreaking pressures on the deprived and Corona-stricken people of Iran.

Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI)
April 25, 2020