New Deaths Confirmed As Coronavirus Continues To Spread In Iran

RadioFarda ^ | 2-21-20

[nuconvert]

Iran has officially the second largest number of Coronavirus (COVID-19) death toll after China with four confirmed deaths. Earlier reports said two patients died in Qom on Thursday, but officials did not say where did the new two deaths occured.

Meanwhile, Tehran has confirmed 13 more patients including 7 in Qom, 4 in Tehran and 2 in Rasht are positively diagnosed with Coronavirus, Kianush Jahanpur, head of public relations and information center of Iran's Ministry of Health said in a tweet Friday afternoon February 21.

Most of the new cases include people living in Qom and those who have visited the religious city south of Tehran during the past week.

Jahanpur had said earlier that 735 patients with symptoms similar to flu have been hospitalized in various cities.

Individual social media users including Reza Younesi and Hossein Nouraninejad have written in detail about the death of their relatives in Qom where a holy shrine has thousands of visitors every day and officials have introduced initiatives to prevent the people from touching and kissing the walls and ornaments around the shrine.

According to conspiracy theories fueled by Iranians' distrust of the Islamic government, the number of cases of death and infliction are far more than what has been announced and the government is playing down the reports about the epidemic as a Parliamentary election takes on Friday.

Jahanpur tweeted later on Friday that the World Health Organization (WHO) sent a fourth shipment of Coronavirus diagnosis kits from Dubai to Tehran in the morning.

Meanwhile, confirming the tweets posted by Jahanpur, the Health Ministry's media adviser Alireza Vahabzadeh said that so far four of the 18 confirmed Coronavirus patients have died.

He added that two patients are being cared for at a hospital in Babaol in Mazandaran Province north of Tehran.

Officials in Tehran, including Hamid Reza Goudarzi the deputy for security affairs at the governor-general's office have said that "there is no reason for concern about Coronavirus in Tehran." However, he said that an "emergency meeting" has been held in the capital on Friday about protecting citizens against disease.

However, like Health Mkinistry Officials, Goudarzi called on Iranians not to pay attention to rumors.

In another development, Deputy Health Minister Karim Hemmati said security officials are working hard to counter fake news about Coronavirius, including "fabricated" correspondences between the Health Minister and his deputies about the spread of the virus in Iran.

In Dehloran in Ilam Province a few people have been reportedly arrested for spreading rumors about the virus, the media quoted the city's Prosecutor as saying.

The Culture Ministry has issued a statement calling on the media not to publish "hypotheses and inaccurate reports" about the disease and avoid publishing comments by non-experts.

In another development Mahan Airline, said to be partly owned by the Revolutionary Guard, which has been accused of spreading the virus by continuing its flights to and from China has announced that it flew to China at the government's order to carry humanitarian aid, adding that it suspended its passenger flights a few weeks ago.

Meanwhile, there has been rising concern about the shortage of masks and hygienic gel at the pharmacies. However, officials say there is no shortage as 15 companies produce 1.5 million masks per day. Nevertheless, Vice-President Es'haq Jahangiri has called on the companies to boost their production.

In the meantime, there have been complaints about the rising price of masks. Mohammad Mosaed, a reporter in Tehran tweeted that he had to pay five times higher than usual for a mask at a Tehran pharmacy.

The prosecutor of Fardis near Tehran confirmed on his Instagram page that some outlets offer hygienic gels and masks at several times their usual price, but law enforcement officers are trying to control the market.

[nuconvert]

18 confirmed cases, 4 deaths

[devane617]

Iran will take this perfect opportunity to weaponize the stuff and kill half the world.

[DouglasKC]

This thing is in the wild...everywhere. There already might be millions infected but not showing any symptoms yet.

[lizma2]

They would be way better off using mrsa or sars.

Fatality rate of corona ain’t that high. This is just “Watch Me” hysteria.

[null and void]

18 confirmed cases, 4 deaths 22% fatalities...

Bring Out Your Dead

Post to me or FReep mail to be on/off the Bring Out Your Dead ping list.

The purpose of the “Bring Out Your Dead” ping list (formerly the “Ebola” ping list) is very early warning of emerging pandemics, as such it has a high false positive rate.

So far the false positive rate is 100%.

At some point we may well have a high mortality pandemic, and likely as not the “Bring Out Your Dead” threads will miss the beginning entirely.

*sigh* Such is life, and death...

If a quarantine saves just one child's life, it's worth it.

[nuconvert]

Yeah well, don’t expect to get the real numbers from the Iranian regime. Probably at least 200 people with the virus. My guess is more.

[DouglasKC]

Fatality rate of corona ain’t that high. This is just “Watch Me” hysteria.

I don't know. The response of the various governments to this supposedly relatively harmless virus is unprecedented in the modern era. I'm suspicious.

[null and void]

Yeah, and more dead too.

[lizma2]

I’m in the field and have been reading the academic research.

It just appears to be media generated histrionics.

[Jamestown1630]

Well, I’ve been watching an older couple who were posting video from the Diamond Princess; until they tested positive and were moved to a hospital in Japan. Now, they’ve been moved to another hospital that appears to have very poor facilities, and their family is frantic.

They are an English family, but are calling on President Trump for help because they have become very disappointed in their own government’s ability to help them. They say, ‘Trump seems to be able to make things happen.’

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCKXv1FeYk0

[caww]

I feel bad for these people, heowevr they chose to travel knowing the risks of going to other countries.

[dayglored]

> Qom where a holy shrine has thousands of visitors every day and officials have introduced initiatives to prevent the people from touching and kissing the walls and ornaments around the shrine.

But of course they wipe down the walls and ornaments with disinfectant after each person kisses them, right? RIGHT???

Oh, wait...

[Jamestown1630]

I think your comment suggests shallow thinking with regard to this very unusual situation.

The Americans were able to get their people out of Japan and quarantine and treat them in the States. Why can’t the Brits do that?

[tet68]

“there is no reason for concern about Coronavirus in Tehran.”

“there are no American tanks in Baghdad...”

[DoughtyOne]

COVID-19 Spreadsheet using JHU data

as of: 02/21/2020 16:13 PST FRIDAY

File XLSX

File XLS

[DouglasKC]

I’m in the field and have been reading the academic research. It just appears to be media generated histrionics

So are the actions of China to contain the virus just an overkill? Or the actions of the US in mandatory quarantines just overkill?

[BobL]

“The Americans were able to get their people out of Japan and quarantine and treat them in the States. Why can’t the Brits do that?”

Maybe they’re too old for the British government to bother with them...you know, like their NHS rules.

[Jamestown1630]

I don’t know what the NHS ‘rules’ are; and I assume that seasoned travelers like these had some kind of travel health insurance.

But this couple were exhibiting amazing and cheerful equanimity through weeks of enduring being stuck in their cabin and fears of becoming ill. (Look at some of their earlier ‘vlogs’. The greatest fear of this elderly couple seemed to be over being separated, should one turn up positive and the other negative; and being stuck in a sub-standard Japanese hospital where they couldn’t communicate adequately with anyone in English.)

Their spirits were high, and the only thing that frustrated them was that they couldn’t receive any real information from their own government. (They always had great praises for how the Diamond Princess crew were performing.)

I think their country has seriously let them down.

[BobL]

“Yeah well, don’t expect to get the real numbers from the Iranian regime. Probably at least 200 people with the virus. My guess is more.”

Iran has a population of 80 Million. Yet, somehow, one of those 200 people just popped up in Canada yesterday. Right?

How about you stop defending them and admit the truth - they likely have between 10,000 and 1 Million infected - in order too be vectoring-off people around the world to spread it.

Now apologize, please. (LOL)

[oldasrocks]

Sure, Just put them on a plane with a few hundred unaffected people like the US just did.