February 28, 2020
The coronavirus has hit Iran, which reported 12 deaths as of Monday, February 24, the largest number of deaths in any country apart from China.
The Health Ministry said that as of that date there were 61 coronavirus cases in Iran. The first cases were discovered in Qom, where most of the ill are still concentrated.
The spokesman of the ministry, Kianoush Jahanpour, said most of those found with the disease were either from Qom or had visited the city recently.
Minoo Mohraz, a Health Ministry official, said the virus “possibly came from Chinese workers who work in Qom and traveled to China.” A Chinese company has been building a solar power plant in Qom.
Health Minister Saeed Namaki later told state television that one of those who died was a businessman who had flown to China multiple times, using indirect flights after Iran stopped all flights to and from China.
China has reported 2,593 deaths. Iran is second with 12. Italy is next with six. Six other countries have reported one to three deaths each.
However, Iran’s death rate—the number of deaths out of those diagnosed with coronavirus—is 4.8 percent. China’s death rate is second at 2.5 percent. That suggests to some that the Islamic Republic is not finding many of the people with the disease, which, if true, is a major threat to other Iranians.
The first death in Iran was reported February 19, two days before the Majlis elections and one day after the Health Ministry said there were no cases of coronavirus in the country.
The government moved into high gear to try to stop the spread of the disease after the elections. It closed schools and universities in 14 of Iran’s 31 provinces. They are Qom, Tehran, Markazi, Gilan, Ardebil, Kermanshah, Qazvin, Zanjan, Mazandaran, Golestan, Hamadan, Alborz, Semnan and Kurdistan.
Nationwide, movie theaters were told to shut down and concerts and art shows were canceled. Tehran announced that the Tehran Metro and buses were being disinfected every night. The government ordered all sports events canceled, but the next day said soccer matches were exempted. However, the soccer federation then announced that games would be played in empty stadiums. Fans could watch on television.
Tehran University suspended classes and asked dormitory residents to go back home.
The most prominent victim of the virus may be the mayor of one of Tehran’s 22 districts, Mojtaba Rahmanzadeh, mayor of District 13, who said he had tested positive for coronavirus. Just before he tested positive, he was photographed sitting beside Tehran City Council Chairman Mohsen Hashemi. There was talk of possibly canceling planned City Council meetings.
Meanwhile, five of Iran’s seven land neighbors—Iraq, Turkey, Armenia, Afghanistan and Pakistan—shut their borders with Iran and stopped all flights. Iraq, which gets substantial quantities of food, said no visitors from Iran could cross the border, but commerce would not be interrupted. Truck drivers would be checked at the border and allowed in if they did not test positive for coronavirus.
The Health Ministry said one hospital in every city has been designated to treat all coronavirus cases.
In Qom, the Friday prayer leader, Mohammad Saeedi, told his congregation that the disease was sent to Qom by President Trump with the goal of “damaging its culture and honor.” He said, “The enemy wants to instill fear in people’s hearts, make Qom look like an unsafe city and take revenge for all its defeats.”
Ahmad Amirabadi Fara-hani, a Majlis deputy from Qom, accused the government of covering up the full extent of the disease in Iran, asserting that more than 50 people had died in Qom alone when the government was saying 12 had died nationwide.
Iran was the first Middle Eastern country to report a coronavirus case. In the following week, Lebanon, Oman, Bahrain, Iraq, the UAE and Kuwait all reported cases. And all six countries announced that the person first detected with the disease had recently come from Iran.
In Canada, officials said February 21 that a woman from Iran in her thirties who recently flew into Vancouver was diagnosed with the disease.
Earlier, Iran evacuated 57 Iranian students from Wuhan, the Chinese city at the epicenter of the epidemic. The students were quarantined upon their return to Iran and were discharged after 14 days without any health problems, officials said.
The virus emerged in Wuhan early in December. But China remained silent for the better part of a month. Now, more than 102,000 people have been infected globally, in as many as 27 countries, with more than 2,600 deaths being reported, mostly in China.
The new virus comes from a large family of coronaviruses, some causing nothing worse than a cold. It causes cold- and flu-like symptoms, including cough and fever, and in more severe cases, shortness of breath. It can worsen to pneumonia, which can be fatal.