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Updated March 18, 2020 at 7:34 pm IST
Iran said on Wednesday that the death toll from the novel coronavirus has surpassed 1,000, while President Hassan Rouhani defended the response of his administration, which has not yet imposed a lockdown.
Iran said on Wednesday that the death toll from the novel coronavirus has surpassed 1,000, while President Hassan Rouhani defended the response of his administration, which has not yet imposed a lockdown.
Iran’s sanctions-hit COVID-19 outbreak is one of the deadliest outside China, where the disease originated.
Rouhani’s government says the virus has killed another 1,135 people out of 17,161 cases since it emerged in the Islamic Republic a month ago.
“Some other people wonder why the government is intervening, but I think we’ve intervened in a meaningful way,” the president said.
“Great things have been done (including) measures that no other country has taken,” he said in a televised address after a weekly meeting of his cabinet.
“We will triumph in those difficult days,” Rouhani added, flanked by mask-clad ministers.
The Health Ministry said another 5,710 people had beaten the virus.
One of those who recovered a 103-year-old woman, state media reported, despite overwhelming evidence that the elderly are at maximum risk.
The unnamed man had been hospitalized in the central city of Semnan for about a week, news firm IRNA reported.
But “she was released after she made a full recovery,” said Navid Danayi, director of the Semnan University of Medical Sciences.
The report does not specify how it was handled.
Iran has not yet imposed a blockade, but the government has suggested the public stay at home ahead of the Iranian New Year holiday.
Since announcing its first two deaths in the Shiite holy city of Qom on Feb. 19, Iran has taken a number of steps to combat the virus.
It closed schools and universities until early April, as well as four key Shiite pilgrimage sites, as well as the shrine of Fatima Masumeh in Qom.
Iran has also discouraged travel during the New Year holiday that begins this week, canceled weekly Friday prayers in primaries and temporarily shut down parliament.
Few officials explained why the blockade had not been imposed.
But Tehran’s mayor said the economy might not bear the burden of such a move, especially under devastating U. S. sanctions.
“In a big picture scenario and in a smart economy, we may have simply imposed a lockdown,” Pirouz Hanachi was quoted as saying by news firm Mehr.
“But what comes next, such as offering goods or compensating for losses across Iran, is not possible, so a total blockade cannot be implemented,” he added.
The U. S. withdrew from a landmark nuclear deal and began reimposing sanctions on Iran in 2018, blocking banking transactions and oil sales, among other sectors.
An Iranian fitness official said the outbreak could last more than two months if other people continue to travel, especially during the holidays.
“Now everyone knows about this disease, and what’s serious is that other people don’t take it seriously,” said Deputy Health Minister Alireza Raisi.
“If other people help us, we can do it, and if not, we expect it to last more than two months. “The deputy minister complained that in Tehran “the bazaars are busy” and that other people travel by car in despite warnings not to do so.
“Be patient these two weeks so that, God willing, we can beat this virus,” Raisi said.
The New Year’s holiday begins this year on March 20 and will last until the beginning of April.
Many Iranians have historically gone to popular places such as the northern provinces of Mazandaran and Gilan, which are two of the hardest hit by the coronavirus.
Representative image
Posted on March 18, 2020 at 07:34 pm IST
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