Leaked documents obtained by Amnesty International reveal that the Iranian government has ignored repeated pleas from senior prison officials for additional resources to control the spread of Covid-19 and treat infected prisoners.
The details outlined in official letters stand in stark contrast to public statements by the former head of the Prisons Organization and current advisor to the head of the judiciary, Asghar Jahangir, who has lauded Iran’s “exemplary” initiatives to protect prisoners from the pandemic. Jahangir also denied reports of increasing infection rates and Covid-19-related deaths inside prisons resulting from overcrowding, unsanitary conditions and lack of access to health care.
“Overcrowding, poor ventilation, lack of basic sanitation and medical equipment, and deliberate neglect of prisoners’ health problems are making Iranian prisons a perfect breeding ground for Covid-19,” said Diana Eltahawy, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa. “The Iranian authorities must stop denying the health crisis in Iran’s prisons and take urgent steps to protect prisoners’ health and lives.”
Iran’s Ministry of Roads announced that, starting on August 5, anyone arriving in Iran by air will only be allowed to enter the country if they have documentation stating that they have been tested negative for coronavirus, a move that was endorsed by Mohammad Reza Karimian, an official with Tehran’s Khomeini International Airport, who also made an announcement about the measure. The certificate must be in English, must have been issued by recognized health authorities in the country where the flight originated and cannot be more than 96 hours old.
According to the airport official, if arriving air passengers are Iranian and are suspected of having contracted coronavirus, they must be tested again and sign a commitment that they will quarantine themselves at home for 14 days. Passengers of other nationalities who show symptoms of Covid-19 but have no valid test results will be returned to the country where the flight originated.
Contradictory Tactics, Information, and Announcements
Every day, more than 700 new cases of coronavirus are identified in the nation’s capital. Out of every 14 people hospitalized in Tehran, one dies.
Health officials have continued to squabble over the the upcoming ceremonies to mourn the martyrdom of Imam Hossein in late August. Health Minister Saeed Namaki met with Shia eulogists and preachers to discuss the matter, just as Alireza Raeesi, one of his deputies, had said only days before that he was against the idea of mourning processions and marches being held in public. Senior Deputy Health Minister Iraj Harirchi announced it would be “impossible” to hold Imam Hossein mourning ceremonies in the way the country had done in the past.
President Rouhani also continued to share his strong views on the matter. “To those who say that the mourning ceremonies [for Imam Hossein] must be canceled, we say no, and we also say no to those who say these ceremonies will cause another wave of the epidemic,” he told a cabinet meeting. He added that all ceremonies would be held according to health guidelines. “If these protocols say we must mourn for three days instead of 20, we must comply, and if they say mourning ceremonies must last three hours instead of seven we must comply with that too.” During a National Coronavirus Taskforce meeting, President Rouhani claimed the guidelines for holding university entrance exams and mourning ceremonies for Imam Hossein were “fully in line with the World Health Organization's global standards.” He did report, however, that mourning ceremonies would use “new techniques” and some parts of the ceremonies would be transferred to “virtual online prayer halls.”
At a meeting with Shia eulogists, preachers and zaakers, professional narrators of the lives of Imams and especially the martyrdom of Imam Hossein, Health Minister Saeed Namaki appealed to them, asking them to help ensure Imam Hossein devotees did not catch fever and become ill. At the same time, he said, they would present a model of mourning that incorporates safety to the world.
On the same day, however, Alireza Raeesi asserted that the majority of the country was coping with coronavirus. But then he conceded that 26 provinces are in a red state of alert, adding that people should mourn at home or online and that the health ministry is categorically opposed to mourning processions and large gatherings because there is no doubt that social distancing would be impossible.
In a letter to President Rouhani, the Iranian Society of Medical Associations warned of danger of a contagion “explosion” and a greater number of fatalities in packed gatherings, including the nationwide university entrance exams and mourning ceremonies. The current daily death toll is 200, with 2,000 cases being reported , the letter continued, so if health guidelines are not observed properly in the next three months, Iran could witness a death toll as high as 1,600 per day.
As of Wednesday, July 29, more than 6,000 medical staff had been infected with coronavirus and 140 of them have died as a result, announced Ali Fattahi, vice president of the Iranian Medical Council. Nurses comprised 22 percent, general practitioners 20 percent, internal medicine specialists represented eight percent and gynecologists five percent of this total.
According to Senior Deputy Health Minister Iraj Harirchi, 26 provinces, home to 72 million Iranians, are in a red or orange state of alert, and the rate of hospitalizations across the country is now close to 4,000 per day, which translates into five hospitalizations per 100,000 of the population. Since February 20, he said, coronavirus fatalities in Iran have averaged 102 per day. He confirmed that the figures of coronavirus cases only reflect those whose tests have been positive.
Harirchi did not clarify whether the “positive test results” criteria applied to fatalities as well. If it does, it means that officials have been undercounting coronavirus fatalities to a significant degree. He warned that Iran has only 130,000 hospital beds for a population of 84 million but, according to him, the real disaster lies in the number of intensive care unit (ICU) beds. Currently, there is only one ICU bed per every 100,000 of the population.
Crisis in the Capital
In Tehran, which has become a significant source of the contagion and considered to be on emergency alert, one out of each 14 hospitalized coronavirus patients dies, according to Senior Deputy Health Minister Iraj Harirchi. He said this shows that warnings by his boss Saeed Namaki were warranted and that his predictions had now come true. However, he did not say what the health ministry had done to prevent the situation apart from issue warnings.
According to Harirchi, in the 24 hours preceding midday on July 30, 710 new coronavirus patients were hospitalized in Tehran. He also reported that 7.5 percent of all Covid-19 patients in Tehran province who are hospitalized die. In addition, the rate of fatalities in patients over 90 years of age is very high and the rate of fatalities within a patient age group of between 60 and 69 years old is 10 percent.
It was reported that Ali Larijani, former speaker of the parliament and a current member of the Expediency Council, who had been quarantined for coronavirus in March, has now been infected for a second time and has been hospitalized in Tehran’s Masih Daneshvari Hospital. He is said to be in a “good condition.”
Quoting the results of a recent survey, Zali said if the mosques were reopened, a considerable number of people in Tehran would choose not to worship in them. He also reported that currently about 900,000 people were using Tehran’s metro system, and 1,600,000 people use other forms of public transportation. At a meeting of the National Coronavirus Taskforce, it was decided that Tehran's limited traffic zone scheme should be suspended for one week.
The city of Karaj is in a situation similar to neighboring Tehran, making it more difficult for the nation’s capital to contain the coronavirus, warned Dr. Alireza Zali, director of the Tehran Coronavirus Taskforce.
Tehran’s Sina hospital is filled to capacity and one third, or about 350 of the hospital's medical staff, had contracted coronavirus, said Dr. Mohammad Talebpour, the president of the hospital. According to him, the hospital has lost count of the number of patients because it changes on a daily basis. “The problem is we have no empty beds left,” he said. “Sometimes we are 10 and 20 percent over capacity and this influx of coronavirus and non-coronavirus patients has made it more difficult to manage the situation.”
Provinces Round-up
He is not, however, alone. Presidents of Tehran’s Imam Khomeini and Firoozgar hospitals also report that they have been dealing with increased numbers of coronavirus patients, a situation that is threatening to overwhelm their facilities.
In Fars province, which was declared a red zone in the last week of July, the number of coronavirus fatalities has been rising. According to Abdolrasoul Hemmati, vice president of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, in the 24 hours before July 29, 19 more people died of coronavirus in the province. A day earlier, he said, 12 had died, bringing the official death toll in the province to 500.
Dr. Hemmati also reported that currently 1,057 coronavirus patients have been hospitalized in Fars province, Out of those, 108 are in ICU wards.
In Mazandaran province the rate of coronavirus infections have been rising as well and, as of July 30, more than 1,900 Covid-19 patients were hospitalized in hospitals run by Mazandaran and Babol universities of medical sciences. In just 24 hours, 304 new coronavirus patients were hospitalized in the province.
The province of Qazvin was in a red state of alert at the end of July. However, it has not been mentioned in Iran’s official statistics. In the 24 hours leading up to July 30, 113 tested positive for coronavirus and 40 were hospitalized, bringing the total number of hospitalizations in the province to 275, according to Dr. Peyman Namdar, president of Qazvin University of Medical Sciences. According to him, by the end of the month, 30 patients were hooked up to ventilators, and 15 other patients were waiting for ICU beds.
Reporting that the number of confirmed coronavirus deaths in Qazvin reached 402, he said: “We can be sure that others who have died with coronavirus symptoms and with positive results from CT scans are not included in these statistics.” He claimed that, according to the World Health Organization, only those with positive coronavirus test results have been included in the statistics. Namdar’s comments echo what many other professionals and experts have said, that Iran’s policy for reporting coronavirus cases, insisting on only including cases where a positive result is available, has resulted in a severe undercounting of coronavirus cases in Iran.
In late July, the situation in Bushehr was relatively stable, but on July 30, Saeed Kashmiri, the secretary of Bushehr Coronavirus Taskforce, reported that in the last 24 hours 67 new Covid-19 patients had been hospitalized, bringing the total coronavirus hospitalizations in the province to 313. He also reported that of 53 Covid-19 patients in ICU wards, 23 were breathing with the help of ventilators.
Daily Briefing
In her daily briefing on July 30, Dr. Sima Sadat Lari, the health ministry’s spokeswoman, reported that the provinces of Tehran, Ardebil, Isfahan, Lorestan, Alborz, East Azerbaijan, Ilam, Razavi Khorasan, North Khorasan, Golestan, Mazandaran, Kerman, Semnan, Hormozgan are in a red state of alert, and the provinces of West Azerbaijan, Khuzestan, Bushehr, Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari, Zanjan, Hamedan, Kohgiluyeh and Boyer Ahmad, Markazi, Yazd, Gilan and Qom are orange.
Yet, as has been the case for at least two months, reports by provincial officials and universities of medical sciences indicate a different picture. According to their figures, the provinces of South Khorasan, Qazvin, Hamedan, Sistan and Baluchistan, Bushehr and Markazi have also been in a red state of alert for several days and the provinces of Kurdistan and Kermanshah must be listed as “orange” as well.
In her daily briefing, Dr. Sadat Lari also announced the official coronavirus statistics for the 24 hours ending at midday, July 30:
- New coronavirus cases: 2,674
- New hospitalizations: 1,523
- Total cases since the outbreak: 304,204
- Total coronavirus tests conducted in Iran: 2,456,909
- Total recovered from coronavirus: 261,200
- New fatalities: 197
- Total death toll since the outbreak:16,766
This is part of IranWire's coronavirus chronology. Read the full chronology
Interested in writing for IranWire?
Share your stories.
comments