Rumors of Health Official Resignation as Tehran Lockdown Rejected

On November 14, the National Coronavirus Taskforce met to make a final decision about whether or not a two-week lockdown of Tehran would go ahead, a move that many health experts had endorsed. But on the day the meeting was due to go ahead, there were reports that President Rouhani had opposed the lockdown and rumors that health minister Saeed Namaki had resigned in protest. Officials, however, have denied these reports, dismissing them as “fake news.”

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After a long tug of war over a two-week lockdown of Tehran and other big cities, it was recently announced that the National Coronavirus Taskforce would make a decision on Saturday, November 14. After the taskforce met, however, President Rouhani and the spokesman for the taskforce announced that, starting on November 21, “other measures” would be implemented.

Some media outlets reported that President Rouhani had personally opposed the lockdown and there were news that health minister Saeed Namaki had resigned in protest. However, Alireza Moezzi, communications director of the president’s office, called these reports “fake news”.

National Coronavirus Taskforce officials did not offer any reasons for the two-week lockdown being rejected; instead, they only outlined the new restrictions.

New Measures: More of a “Warning”

According to President Rouhani, new restrictions in Iranian cities will be imposed from November 21 and will last as long as is necessary. It appears that, once again, these measures are focused on “imposing fines” and “closure of cultural centers” and as Rouhani said, they are designed to “warn” people.

According to Alireza Raeesi, spokesman for the National Coronavirus Taskforce, the restrictions in a certain area depend on the color code of the alert in that area: red (level three), orange (level two) or yellow (level 1). These are classifications that have been used throughout the coronavirus crisis in Iran. According to the government, each set of restrictions must be strictly follow and will remain in place for two weeks. After two weeks, officials said, the situation will be evaluated to see how effective the restrictions have been. Depending on the results, they will either be extended and made stricter or relaxed.

Raeesi added that essential businesses and services will be allowed to function in “red” cities only, and everything else will be ordered to shut down. According to him, more than 100 cities, including Tehran and provincial capitals, fall into this category, approximately 150 cities and counties fall into the “orange” category and 155 counties are designated as “yellow.”

The number of office workers and government employees allowed to work in offices, he said, will also depend on the color code: one-third will be allowed to go to offices in red areas, half of the normal employees will be allowed in orange areas, and two-thirds in yellow areas. Certain restrictions on traffic within and between provinces will also be imposed.

Taken together, most of these measures resemble previous rounds of restrictions, which have proved largely ineffective and have been harshly criticized for lack of planning, lack of coordination between government agencies and extremely lax enforcement.

Fatalities Expected to Double in Coming Weeks

Since the beginning of November, the official number of daily coronavirus fatalities in Iran has exceeded 450. In a TV interview, first deputy health minister Iraj Harirchi said it was expected that this number will continue to rise. He also referred to a projection by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), a research institute at the University of Washington in Seattle that works on global health statistics and impact evaluation, and said: “We do not take it as our benchmark but, unfortunately, it projects that the number of fatalities in our country will almost double in the next two weeks.”

Prior to this, Harirchi had said that the country’s authorities must double the official number of fatalities to arrive at the accurate number. If true, it should be expected that in the coming weeks the number of deaths from coronavirus could rise to somewhere around 1,500 per day.

Provinces Round-up

Kermanshah has been in a state of red alert for weeks, and in the 24 hours spanning November 13 and November 14, 19 more patients lost their lives, bringing the death toll for the province to 1,053. “During the same time period, 171 new Covid-19 patients were hospitalized and 136 patients who had recovered were released,” reported Mehdi Mohammadi, head of Kermanshah Coronavirus Taskforce’s Information Committee. “Currently, a total of 1,212 coronavirus patients are hospitalized in the province.” The situation in Kermanshah is highly critical and all its cities except one are in a red state of alert.

In Fars province, not only patients have lined up outside medical centers, there are also lines at the  cemeteries. “In recent days the number of coronavirus fatalities in Shiraz has increased considerably and for this reason there have been disruptions and delays in the delivery of bodies,” said Ali Parsazadeh, head of Shiraz Cemeteries Management Bureau.

According to Parsazadeh, coronavirus deaths in Shiraz are increasing day by day and, for this reason, cemetery workers are exhausted as much as health workers. Currently, every day between 80 to 100 bodies, Covid-19 fatalities and others, are brought to the main cemetery of Shiraz.

In Alborz province, still in a red state of alert, currently 918 Covid-19 patients are hospitalized. In the past 24 hours 15 other patients died, bringing the total death toll in the province to 2,006.

Iran’s Latest Coronavirus Statistics

In her daily briefing for November 14, the health ministry’s spokeswoman Dr. Sima Sadat Lari announced the official coronavirus statistics for the past 24 hours:

Dr. Lari also reported that all 31 Iranian provinces are in red, orange or yellow states of alert.

This is part of IranWire's coronavirus chronology. Read the full chronology