{"id":221801,"date":"2020-07-08T18:08:44","date_gmt":"2020-07-08T17:08:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/?p=221801"},"modified":"2023-01-24T18:46:41","modified_gmt":"2023-01-24T17:46:41","slug":"irans-coronavirus-outbreak-sets-new-records-but-is-still-underreported","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/news\/human-rights\/irans-coronavirus-outbreak-sets-new-records-but-is-still-underreported\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran\u2019s Coronavirus Outbreak Sets New Records, but Is Still Underreported"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Iran\u2019s
Coronavirus outbreak in Iran<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Iran continues to set new records for single-day death totals from the novel coronavirus outbreak<\/a>. The <\/span>regime\u2019s<\/span> Health Ministry <\/span>while announcing the regime\u2019s engineered <\/span>statistics, acknowledged<\/span> on <\/span>Tuesday<\/span> that <\/span>200<\/span> people had died over the previous 24 hours<\/span>.<\/span> This the highest death toll announced by the regime<\/span>. <\/span>Meanwhile, the Iranian Resistance announced on Tuesday that over 66,900<\/a><\/span> people have lost their lives because of the COVID-19 pandemic.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

With this latest statistic, <\/span>Iran<\/span> continues an upward trend that has been ongoing since early May, following <\/span>the regime\u2019s criminal decision to send people back to work.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The implications of the new record are potentially even worse than they appear on the surface. While the<\/span> regime\u2019s statistics are engineered and meant to downplay the crisis, <\/span>the regime\u2019s <\/span>official statistics generally reflect the country\u2019s actual overall trends<\/span>. Since very early in the outbreak, independent estimates have been reported to the international community from <\/span>the Iranian <\/span>opposition, People\u2019s<\/a><\/span> Mojahedin Organization of Iran<\/span> (PMOI\/MEK)<\/span>. These suggest that the actual impact of Iran\u2019s Covid-19 crisis is something like six times worse than what has been officially recorded.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The one-day increase of <\/span>200<\/span> supposedly brought Iran\u2019s overall death toll to 11,<\/span>931<\/span>. But based on accumulated reports from across each of the country\u2019s 31 provinces, the <\/span>MEK<\/span><\/a> has determined that the actual death toll was more than 6<\/span>6<\/span>,900 at the start of this week. The democratic opposition group has also taken the firm position that such figures stem from the compounded effects of Tehran\u2019s mismanagement of the crisis. Early failures to address the problem led to rapid spread among the civilian population, but also caused sickness and death among Iranian healthcare workers, leaving the country ill-prepared to address the crisis as it grew worse.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As just one example of this phenomenon, a medical sciences university in <\/span>Zanjan<\/span> Province recently reported that 100 nurses had contracted the coronavirus. The school\u2019s deputy dean observed that while the total number of patients is increasing on a daily basis, the facility is also facing \u201ca shortage of human resources in the sanitation and treatment sector as well as a shortage of hospital equipment.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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The regime tries to<\/span> blame this latter phenomenon<\/span>, in particular, and<\/span> the whole crisis generally,<\/span> on sanctions that have been imposed over the past two years by the United States. <\/span>But this is just a bogus claim<\/span>. <\/span>The<\/span> early<\/span> distribution of vital equipment was <\/span>undertaken to benefit regime authorities and their close affiliates, rather than to safeguard public health. <\/span>Most Iranian <\/span>hospitals<\/span> lost their<\/span> personal protective equipment<\/span> to black market sales conducted by the Revolutionary Guard <\/span>(IRGC<\/a>) <\/span>commercial entities.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

At the same time, much of Iran\u2019s population remained in the dark about the extent to which these resources were needed, u<\/span>ntil long after the outbreak had overwhelmed the healthcare system\u2019s ability to manage it. Tehran made no public statements on the arrival of coronavirus in <\/span>Iran<\/span> until February 19. But documents were later released by the <\/span>MEK<\/span> which proved that <\/span>the regime\u2019s <\/span>authorities had been aware of the <\/span>COVID<\/span><\/a>-19<\/a> patients being admitted to Iranian hospitals since at least the last week of January.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite the growing number of death and infections across Iran, the regime\u2019s d<\/span>isinformation remains the order of the day, even though the regime cannot hope to get away with the outright denials that characterized roughly the first month of the outbreak. As a result, it appears as though Iranians are generally aware of the fact that the situation in their country is getting worse<\/span> due to the regime\u2019s mismanagement. <\/span>Pretty much the same thing can be said about the international community.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In this regard, <\/span>Mrs. Maryam Rajavi<\/a>, the president-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI<\/a>), reiterated that the accelerating growth of coronavirus cases across the country, to which regime officials are inevitably confessing, is the result of the corrupt and criminal policies of regime supreme leader Ali Khamenei and regime president Hassan Rouhani.<\/span> She said: \u201c<\/span>Instead of providing the needs of the workers, regime leaders are sending these hardworking people to crowded and contaminated environments without the least preventive and protective equipment. At the same time, they are blaming the people for not abiding by hygienic protocols. This is the regime\u2019s strategy of mass killing to protect itself from another uprising.<\/span>\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Sadly,<\/span> major media outlets tend to report on the Iranian situation by simply repeating the regimes official estimates for the infection rate and death toll. Few even acknowledge that there are alternate estimates available, and still fewer are willing to name the PMOI<\/a><\/span> or<\/span> the <\/span>NCRI<\/span><\/a>, as sources of such information.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s not clear whether these omissions are the product of ignorance or political calculation, but it is clear that they are <\/span>having<\/span> an adverse impact on Iran\u2019s prospects for getting out of this crisis before it sets a series of even more alarming records. <\/span>Fortunately, there is a simple remedy for the deficiencies in current reporting. On July 17, the NCRI<\/a> will be live-streaming its \u201cFree Iran Global Summit<\/a>,\u201d and the coalition is sure to use the event as an opportunity to share the entirety of its findings regarding Covid-19\u2019s impact on Iran, and the regime\u2019s contributions to that impact.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Iran Rising Up for Freedom - Friday, July 17, 2020<\/div><\/div>
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