August 19, 2020
TEHERON, Iran (AP) – Iran has surpassed 20,000 deaths shown due to coronavirus, the Ministry of Health said, the number of deaths from any Middle Eastern country so far in the pandemic.
The announcement came when the Islamic Republic, which has been grappling with the largest epidemic in the region and the number of deaths, has taken university exams for more than one million students. Iran is also preparing for mass Shia commemorations e late this month.
Iran has suffered the region’s first primary epidemic, seeing high-level politicians, fitness officials and devout leaders of its Shia theocracy being affected by the virus. Since then, it has struggled to involve the spread of the virus in the country of 80 million people, first, making it backward to see how it goes back since June.
However, foreign experts distrust the number of cases in Iran. Even researchers from the Iranian parliament in April warned that the death toll is almost double the officially reported figures, due to insufficient count and the fact that not everyone else with respiratory disorders has been screened for the virus.
Iran reported its first cases and coronavirus deaths on the same day in February, the first virus outbreak in the Middle East, but only experienced its highest peak on a singles day of reported cases in June. The highest death toll on a day in July.
In February, before Iran reported its first cases, the government denied for days that the virus had arrived in the country, allowing the virus to spread when the country celebrated the 41st anniversary of its 1979 Islamic revolution with mass protests and then held parliamentary elections in which the government desperately tried to increase participation.
Today, Iran has reported more than 350,200 cases shown, with 20,125 deaths, fitness ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari said.
Meanwhile, about 1.4 million Iranian academics have begun taking their multi-hour college exams, and have seen giant teams of applicants taking the exams at giant verification centers. Each candidate remains in the verification center for approximately 4 hours.
Ali Reza Zali, who leads the crusade against the pandemic in Tehran, said the Iranian capital still faces the alert spot for the virus. The government would disinfect control centres to “ensure the suitability of applicants on the point,” he insisted.
Dozens of applicants will have to take the test from their hospital beds because they have already been in poor health with the virus.
Then, later this month, Iran will mark the Ashura, a Shiite commemoration of mourning the death in the 7th century of the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad Hussein, one of the most beloved saints in Shiite Islam.
Nine days before the Ashura, mass daily processions see men banging their backs with chains or chests, a symbolic expression of remorse for not attending Hussein before his martyrdom. Many distribute loose foods and soft drinks to mourners.
On Monday, a devoted society said Ashoura continues “in all circumstances,” while requiring participants to adhere to fitness guidelines. However, the government complains that the use of the mask and other measures has remained weaker than expected, probably due to Iranian wear and fatigue a few months after the onset of the crisis.
The Iranian Psychiatric Association has written a letter to Health Minister Saeed Namaki, it is not easy to “generally ban all meetings, especially online mourning ceremonies” when others mark Ashoura. He cited an almost daily death toll of two hundred other people from the virus in Iran.
“We are on the verge of a much more serious catastrophe,” he warned.
Referring to Ashoura, Iranian Vice President Eshaq Jahangiri tweeted that coronavirus “has made mourning precarious.”
“This year we stayed home to cry,” he said.
Meanwhile, the United Arab Emirates reported its largest number of instances in more than a month, saying that today its mass testing program had detected 435 new instances. To date, the sheikh federation, which houses Abu Dhabi and Dubai, has recorded more than 65,000 cases, with 367 deaths.
It was then that Dubai reopened to tourism and the United Arab Emirates plans to host the Indian Premier League from next month.
In a briefing on Tuesday, the Minister of Health and Prevention of the United Arab Emirates, Abdulrahman al-Owais, accused others who do not wear masks and stay away from others at personal parties and gatherings in family circles for widening cases.
“Unfortunately, we have recently noticed an alarming increase in the number of cases compared to the last few weeks,” the minister said.
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