The number of people in Iran’s emergency rooms infected with the coronavirus Delta variant continues to rise sharply, with numbers between two and four times greater than in recent weeks.
The director of public relations for the Iranian Medical Council says emergency rooms accustomed to treating an average of 30 patients are now providing beds for between 60 and 80 patients.
Hossein Kermanpour also said hospital staff were extremely stretched and facing a multitude of pressures, a situation that was having an impact on patients too. “The decline in the quality of services has made patients angry, and led to conflicts with medical staff; in some cases, people have lost control and damaged emergency room equipment," he said.
Kermanpour said a recent slight lull in the growing numbers of patients offered a brief reprieve for medical staff in rural areas, but not in metropolitan centers. The situation would continue to be serious, he said. “At the intervals between the peaks, emergency rooms are less likely to deal with coronavirus patients, but instead handle emergencies arising from various incidents happening across the city. These traumas keep medical staff busy.”
According to the latest statistics provided by the Ministry of Health, in the 24-hour period from noon on August 25 to noon on August 26, a further 694 Iranians lost their lives to Covid-19. Iran’s official coronavirus death toll has now risen to 105,000.
The medical council has previously stated that the actual number of deaths from the pandemic was between three and four times higher than the Ministry of Health claimed.
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